IMF head talks with Putin

Макроэкономика 30.12.2014 Yesterday, Ukrainian lawmakers passed the 2015 state budget law at 4:30 in the morning ahead of the next mission of IMF which starts on January 8th. The Fund is looking for additional US$15bn from donors. Prior commitments include US$17bn plus US$6bn from the donors. It is no coincidence that this news was released on the same day the IMF head Ms Lagarde talked by phone with Russian president Putin who holds a US$3bn Eurobond due next December which could be exercised for early redemption because of the 60% debt-to-GDP covenant which Ukraine recently breached. Reportedly, Putin said he was about to help Ukraine, but no details of an early redemption of the bond were released. In our view, this issue must have been discussed during the conversation and most likely Putin avoided committing himself in regard to not requiring an early redemption of the bond.