The funding is meant to support reforms and transparency of “public resources expenditures”
© Getty Images/komyvgory
The World Bank has approved a $1.5 billion loan to Ukraine guaranteed by the Japanese government, the financial institution revealed on Friday.
The funds will be channeled to Kiev to address the needs of displaced people and “support reforms to enhance the transparency and accountability of public resources expenditures,” as well as “help markets to function better.”
The loan is guaranteed by the government of Japan as part of the Advancing Needed Credit Enhancement for Ukraine Trust Fund initiative and is aimed at supporting social security and economic development.
According to the World Bank, the package will help fund “reforms to establish a damaged or destroyed property register to enable compensation payments and to guide the reconstruction of housing in Ukraine. It will also help strengthen the public procurement system and improve the country’s tax reporting framework to curb tax evasion and avoidance.”
To date, the World Bank has mobilized over $37.5 billion to provide Ukraine with financial assistance, of which nearly $23 billion has already been disbursed, the organization said.
The Ukrainian budget has been receiving cash injections from Western sponsors to keep it running. Since February 2022, Kiev’s backers have bankrolled around €170 billion ($184 billion) in financial aid, data from Kiel Institute for the World Economy showed.
On Thursday, the International Monetary Fund’s board announced a decision allowing Kiev “to draw the equivalent of about $890 million, which will be channeled for budget support.”
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