Ukraine is unlikely to receive a second tranche of a $17-billion loan programme from the International Monetary Fund this year as expected, Finance Minister Oleksander Shlapak said on Tuesday, according to Reuters. Ukraine, which has been fighting pro-Russian separatists in its east and struggling to resolve a months-long gas pricing dispute with Moscow, badly needs cash to support its budget, pay off debts and prop up its faltering hryvnia currency. Kiev had expected that a second tranche, worth $2.7 billion, of the IMF bailout would come in December after the Fund's mission was due later this month. But Shlapak said an IMF visit was unlikely before a new government was formed. President Petro Poroshenko hailed a sweeping victory for pro-Europe parties in parliamentary election on Sunday, but it may take a month or more before a new cabinet takes over. "An (IMF) mission will come when a new government is in place," Shlapak told journalists. "They want to talk to a new government. The key question would be the adoption of a realistic 2014 budget." He added that most likely, the tranche would be postponed until next year.
