Ukraine will have to make significant increases in the price of gas for domestic consumers to get funds flowing again under its suspended International Monetary Fund bailout, the head of a visiting fund mission said Monday.
"When the government is ready to take action in this area, the IMF would be ready to resume discussion on the next stage of the [bailout] program," IMF mission chief Christopher Jarvis said.
The Kiev government has balked at the politically risky step of raising gas and heating prices for Ukrainian households by 30 percent to 50 percent, hoping to renegotiate cheaper natural gas from Russia to circumvent the problem and forfeiting $6 billion in tranches of IMF money.
(Reuters)
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