IMF considering return of its rep to Kyiv

KYIV. Sept 14 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is considering the possibility of returning its permanent representative to Kyiv, Alternate Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund Vladyslav Rashkovan said at a discussion organized by the Centre for Economic Strategy on Tuesday.

"We are thinking about returning an IMF representative to Kyiv. We are thinking about organizing a physical mission: we don’t know whether it will be Kyiv, or it will probably be Warsaw, or Krakow, or Vienna. Because during COVID-19 and during the war, we didn’t have [a physical mission]," he said.

Rashkovan added that the Fund was also discussing a new tool, which would be an addition to the SMP (staff monitoring program) tool. "This tool is needed by Ukraine and other countries where there are wars or conflicts, when forecasting is very difficult: it is very difficult to plan what will happen in a few months – you need to make some kind of frame [framework]," the representative of Ukraine at the IMF said.

He pointed out that such a tool could provide confidence to the experts who would work on it, including within the Fund itself, and reduce the risks to their careers.

Rashkovan also emphasized the importance of returning the wording "Russian invasion of Ukraine" or "Russia’s war against Ukraine" to the IMF official language in its reports. He recalled that on February 25, the IMF, in a joint statement with the World Bank, clearly called what happened a Russian invasion, but in most subsequent reports the language has become more neutral, and Russia is trying to call what is happening a "war in Ukraine," as it tried to impose in the past "a conflict in Ukraine" or "conflict in eastern Ukraine."