J.Hawk — IMF's offer Ukraine can't refuse?
Vesti Finance reports that Ukraine will receive an IMF credit worth $15.4 billion only after Ukraine reduces its national debt to 70% of GDP. I suppose this is IMF's way of saying "when Hell freezes over" because currently Ukraine's debt is closer to 100% of GDP due to both hand-over-fist borrowing and the collapse of the real economy. The bad news just keep on coming...for example, Ukraine's car production declined by a factor of 10 between January 2014 and January 2015.
So what is Ukraine to do? It's not really clear what the IMF expects Poroshenko et al. to do in this situation. About the only realistic way by which that level of funding could be raised would be through a massive privatization, a sell-off of whatever property the Ukrainian state still has. This could, of course, include arable land, mineral rights, Ukraine's Black Sea shelf... Let's face it, considering the dire straits in which the country is right now, that's not as crazy an idea as it sounds. Greece has been doing precisely that for the last several years just to qualify for another round of "aid."....
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