Ukraine Dips Into Dwindling Reserves To Pay Gazprom

Ukraine Dips Into Dwindling Reserves To Pay Gazprom:



"The money has to come from somewhere. Ukraine will pay Russian natural gas company Gazprom the roughly $4.5 billion it owes in late payments from cash it has piling up in an already dwindling foreign reserve account, the National Bank of Ukraine said on Monday.



Ukraine’s economy is once again on crisis footing. Earlier this year, it reached a deal for a $17.01 billion bailout package with the International Monetary Fund. That’s more than the country has in foreign reserves, which stood at just $16.3 billion in September, according to the IMF.



“We managed to agree with the IMF that the payments for the gas can be made from our own exchange reserves and the IMF will support us. That is why we are confident we can support all the payments to Gazprom on the recent gas agreement,” National Bank governor Valeriya Gontareva said at a press briefing in Kiev today. On the same day, Ukraine’s Energy Minister Yuriy Prodan told RIA Novosti, a Russian state owned news agency, that Kiev has still not paid for Russian gas, but aims to do so “in the near future.” That near future is less than two months away."



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