US won’t provide loan guarantees to Ukraine, seeks other ways of support

The new U.S. administration is studying various ways
to increase support for Ukraine, but the U.S. has not been providing loan guarantees
for a couple of years, Megan Bouldin, economic counselor of the U.S. embassy in
Kyiv told Interfax-Ukraine in an interview published on March 31. She said that
Ukraine still has access to sizable conventional lending from the IMF, World
Bank and EU.

Under the Obama administration, Ukraine issued three
5Y state guaranteed Eurobonds (AID) in 2014-2016, for USD 1 bln each. The
latest of such issues matures in September 2021, so Ukraine was hoping for its
refinancing on comparable conditions. In particular, on March 30, Ukraine’s
finance minister Serhiy Marchenko stated that the government is going to talk
to the new U.S. administration on a new program of state guarantees for up to
USD 1 bln this year.

Alexander Paraschiy: Bouldin’s
statement looks discouraging, but nevertheless it won’t be a problem for
Ukraine’s finance ministry to refinance its external obligations this year. The
state international debt due this year is just about USD 3.8 bln, most of which
can be covered by IMF/WB/EU loans providing Ukraine is able to continue its
cooperation with the IMF.