21/1/2015: Ukraine Requests Extended Fund Facility from the IMF

So Ukraine made a (formal?) request for change in the IMF lending programme:

Of all places... in Davos. And Ms Lagarde is dead-pan sure that an agreement to proceed will follow from the IMF Executive Board... not that anyone could doubt that it will, but it might be a better tone not to jump ahead.

The quantum of funding requested is not known, but we already know that Ukraine's own estimates were USD15 billion back in November 2014. Since then, things did not improve, so the same figure is probably closer to USD18 billion. And I suspect that Ukraine will need at least USD20-25 billion over 2015-2017, even under rather positive assumptions.

I do hope they get a good rate on all this borrowing, as loans do require interest payments and principal repayments.