By KYIV. May 13 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The finance ministers and central bank governors of the G7 countries reiterate their unwavering support for Ukraine and announced an increase in economic support for Ukraine for the current and early next year to $44 billion, according to a communiqué following their meeting in Niigata (Japan) on Saturday published on the website of the European Commission.
“We are strongly committed to continue addressing Ukraine’s urgent short-term financing needs, as well as supporting its neighboring and other severely affected countries. We, together with the international community, have increased our commitment of budget and economic support for Ukraine for 2023 and early 2024 to $44 billion, which enabled the approval of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) program for Ukraine amounting to $15.6 billion over 4 years. These supports give Ukraine certainty and enable its authorities to safeguard the functioning of government, continue the delivery of basic services, carry out the most critical repairs of damaged infrastructure and stabilize the economy,” the report said.
“We look forward to swift implementation of structural reforms by Ukraine under the IMF-supported program, and the successful completion of the program’s reviews, which will promote macroeconomic and financial stabilization, enhance governance and strengthen institutions, contribute to longer-term economic sustainability and post-war reconstruction. This will also help to catalyze further financial support from other countries and institutions as well as the private sector,” it says.
“We will continue our joint efforts to support Ukraine’s repair of its critical infrastructure, recovery and reconstruction, including through the Multi-agency Donor Coordination Platform. We welcome continued engagement by the IMF, the World Bank Group (WBG), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Investment Bank. Given the substantial recovery and reconstruction financing needs, we should expand the donor base. Mobilizing private capital is also crucial. In this context, we welcome ongoing efforts to catalyze private resources through providing guarantees and insurance, including by the International Finance Corporation and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency,” according to the document.
“We reiterate our unwavering resolve to impose and enforce sanctions and other economic measures to further undermine Russia’s capacity to wage its illegal, unjustifiable and unprovoked war of aggression. We remain committed to countering any attempts to evade and undermine our sanction measures. Following our Leaders’ statement on February 24, as part of our efforts to strengthen the enforcement of our sanctions and other economic measures, we have initiated sharing typologies of circumvention and evasion and other relevant information through the Enforcement Coordination Mechanism (ECM). Going forward, we will continue to strengthen coordination in monitoring cross-border transactions between Russia and other countries, take further action directed at the Russian financial sector as necessary, and closely monitor the effectiveness of the price caps on Russian crude oil and petroleum products,” the report reads.
“We call on other countries to join our measures against Russia and efforts to bolster their enforcement. We will also ensure Russia’s sovereign assets in our jurisdictions remain immobilized in accordance with our Leaders’ statement on February 24,” the participants in the meeting stated.
