KYIV, September 20 – Ukraine’s Finance Ministry started to make payments on domestic T-bills worth about Hr 80 million ($14.7 million) after missing payments earlier this month due to a conflict with the National Bank, a news report said Wednesday.
Several commercial banks have already received payments on the T-bills, the Interfax news agency said.
Last week, Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko called the missed payments a “technical problem” that resulted from misunderstandings between the ministry and the central bank.
The National Bank sold T-bills that were supposed to be restructured under an agreement with the Finance Ministry. The deal is still being prepared for signing, but the ministry missed the payments scheduled for Sept. 6 and 13, considering that the bonds already were restructured assets.
The rift between Ukraine’s financial institutions came as an International Monetary Fund mission was examining the country’s progress on economic reforms. The fund froze its $2.6 billion aid package for Ukraine last fall due to the slow pace of economic reforms in Ukraine.
The IMF urged the government to settle the conflict and pay the debts to commercial banks.
