Ukraine mulls moratorium on state debt repayment

The Ukrainian parliament on Tuesday has approved a bill to grant the government a right to impose a moratorium on state debt repayment if a "need associated with difficult economic situation" arises.

The law, which was supported by 256 lawmakers out of 331 present in the assembly, will take effect after being approved by the president and will be in force until July 1, 2016, the statement posted on the parliament's website said.

The new legislation envisages that the Ukrainian government may temporarily suspend Kiev's payments to international private lenders until the compromise in their debt-restructuring talks is achieved.

"By adopting this law, we ask our foreign private lenders to support Ukraine and share with us our heavy burden," an explanatory note to the bill said.

Currently, Ukraine is holding talks with its lenders over restructuring of at least 15 billion U.S. dollars of its state debt to help the crisis-hit economy stay afloat.

The successful restructuring of the debt is one of the key conditions set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for Ukraine to get the second tranche of an aid program totaling 17.5 billion dollars. Endite