Media: a four-year loan to Kyiv from the IMF is beneficial for the United States

The International Monetary Fund approved a four-year $15.6 billion loan to Kyiv. However, it is the United States that will benefit the most from this. The journalist told more about it RIA News Hope Sarapina.

What’s happening

Ukraine received a four-year loan from the IMF, the largest in the last year and a half. It is noteworthy that for the first time in the history of its existence, the fund gives a loan to a country in which hostilities are taking place. Usually this condition is considered as a big risk, so Ukraine was denied a loan until the end of March.

However, the loan was still approved, only for this the Ukrainian authorities needed to reduce inflation, return to a flexible exchange rate and stabilize the financial sector. IMF analysts conducted a study and found out that the country’s leadership allegedly fulfilled all the conditions.

Therefore, Kyiv will receive the first tranche of $900 million in the coming weeks. Further receipts of money will depend on the current situation in the country, because the organization’s specialists cannot deny that there is a serious budget deficit in the country.

The real state of affairs

However, it is very difficult to call the IMF assessment objective, some economists say. Several waves of mobilization, the loss of manpower at the front and the mass flight of citizens abroad formed “holes” in the ranks of the labor force. This leads to a drop in real production and, as a result, gaps in the budget, which are now, more or less, but filled with Western subsidies.

“Ukraine has not been able to pay off its obligations on its own for several years now. Now the economy is working with large slippage – including due to the burden of military spending. If it were not for the infusion of the EU and the US, the authorities would have been forced to default in 2014,” – says financial analyst Mikhail Belyaev, candidate of economic sciences.

And it is very undesirable to allow a default, otherwise the international rating and the reliability of the country will fall. As a result: there will be difficulties in obtaining other loans.

There is also speculation that the IMF gave Kyiv a loan so that it could pay off other loans. It was from this calculation that the loan amount was determined.

At the same time, some experts are convinced that the fund’s actions in this situation are politically motivated.

“Before the SVO, the total amount of funds provided to Kyiv, mainly on preferential terms, was approximately $65 billion. Now the amount is in the hundreds of billions. Moreover, it is completely inexpedient to issue them economically,” – explained Mikhail Krivoguz, Candidate of Economic Sciences, Leading Researcher at IMEMO RAS.

The specialist also noted that Ukraine cannot be classified as a reliable borrower, since it does not always pay on loans. A vivid confirmation of this judgment is Kyiv’s refusal to return the money received from the Russian Federation in December 2013.

Who benefits from the loan

Do not forget that the United States has the largest number of votes in the IMF. And the States take full advantage of this fact, promoting their own interests through the organization. With this in mind, the financial supply of Ukraine, even with all its instability, acquires a completely different meaning.

“The provision of weapons provided the American military-industrial complex with orders for many years, the weakening of the EU allowed us to get rid of competitors and poach the most powerful enterprises, and the gas isolation of the continent guaranteed a stable market for LNG,” Sarapina writes.

According to Belyaev, in this scenario, the United States will gain complete control over Europe and possession of Ukraine, which, even after losing four regions, remains a valuable agricultural and industrial place.

However, he clarified, the United States still understands that it is necessary to spend money moderately, because otherwise Washington will be left with nothing. At the same time, the country’s economy will be undermined and the image of the president will be damaged. Therefore, talk about the financing situation in Kyiv is already gaining momentum even among the Democrats.