KIEV: Ukraine has secured an $800-million loan from the World Bank and Japan, the Ukrainian Minister of Economic Development and Trade Aivaras Abromavicius announced Friday.
“One year on, we finally signed a $500-million loan with the World Bank [and] $300 million from Japan for budgetary needs,” Abromavicius said via his Twitter microblog.
Steeped in deep recession and inflation from conflict with independence supporters in the southeast of the country, Ukraine increasingly relies on outside help to avoid defaulting on its over-$70 billion national debt.
In February, the World Bank pledged $2 billion to Ukraine to support banking, governance, business, reform and investment undertakings. The country received $5 billion of a four-year $17.5-billion pledge from the International Monetary Fund in March.
In addition to a $300-million parallel loan alongside the World Bank, Japan committed to providing an additional $1.5 billion in aid to Ukraine, as well as $16.6 billion in grants. The European Union has also pledged a $15-billion aid package to support Kiev’s efforts to reanimate its ailing economy.
