Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich on Wednesday assured the International Monetary Fund that his country was on track to meet its budget deficit targets as it seeks a fresh $19 billion loan. Ukraine needs IMF money to help its economy recover from a 15 percent slump in 2009 but the Fund has said it wants more ambitious targets on fiscal tightening and curbing inflation, Reuters reported. Meeting a visiting IMF mission, Yanukovich said first quarter economic growth and cost-cutting measures had bolstered government finances. "Budget revenues in the five months (of 2010) have grown by 8.8 percent," the presidential administration quoted him as saying. Ukraine adopted a 2010 budget deficit target of 5.3 percent of gross domestic product and has said it will reduce it by one percentage point a year. The IMF has urged faster tightening which Yanukovich said was achievable.
