Ukraine needs to deepen anti-corruption, energy reforms for new IMF tranche: minister

KIEV, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine has to intensify its anti-corruption efforts and energy reforms to receive the next portion of aid from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Ukrainian Finance Minister Olexandr Danylyuk said on Wednesday.

"We have at the moment two prior actions, which are not completed. First is passing the law on the creation of an anti-corruption court, second is an automatic adjustment of the gas tariffs to market level," Danylyuk, who is now on a visit to the United States, was quoted as saying by his ministry's press service.

Last week, Ukraine's central bank said it hopes to receive a total of 2 billion U.S. dollars from the global lender this year to replenish the country's foreign exchange reserves.

Under a cooperation program launched in 2015, the east European country has received about 8.7 billion dollars from the IMF, which helped its economy avoid collapse amid the crisis.

The disbursement of the aid was suspended since April 2017 over Ukraine's failure to implement the agreed reforms, while the cooperation program is set to end in March 2019. Enditem