Government reduced the number of conditions that have to be met to win new IMF loans, but several remain, Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko said
main, Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko said in an interview published on Friday.
An IMF mission left Ukraine on Thursday, but the Fund says it is not yet ready to resume lending to the former Soviet republic under a $2.6 billion loan program that was frozen last September over slow reforms.
Renewed loans are also being delayed by an audit of the central bank, which showed that Ukraine had used to misrepresent its reserves to win more IMF loans.
Yushchenko said the number of loan terms to be met by the government had been reduced from 42 last year.
"At the last meeting we managed to agree on the final list of measures that now includes 11 positions," he told the government daily Uryadovy Kurier.
He said these included scrapping duties on sunflower seed exports, tighter budget discipline, transparent privatization tenders and higher cash collection in the country's ailing energy sector.
Ukrainian officials had hoped to get fresh IMF funds by autumn to help repay or restructure hundreds of millions of dollars in debt falling due this year.
"The government has failed to fulfil many loan conditions, but it is very precarious as the situation with foreign debt payments has not yet been resolved completely," one Western economist said.
"The government can now hope to unlock lending only closer to the end of the year," he said.
But some said such an outcome might be a blessing in disguise as Ukraine might learn to live within its means and rely on its own economic potential.
The economy is growing and dependence on IMF loans has decreased in recent months due to an influx of hard currency from exporters and revenues from cash privatizations.
"Relations with the IMF are gradually becoming less important as the government sees it can survive without its help," said Hlib Vyshlinsky of the independent Center of Prospective Studies.
