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There's a saying that you should be careful what you desire to have because you just might get what you want. Ukraine is about to see what life is like in the EU. The next Greece is coming to town
IMF pledges Ukraine $18B as PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk warns nation on "brink" of bankruptcy - CBS News
Ukraine, welcome aboard!!! lol
IMF pledges Ukraine $18B as PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk warns nation on "brink" of bankruptcy - CBS News
The International Monetary Fund on Thursday pledged $18 billion in loans to prop up Ukraine's sinking economy, as the nation's prime minister forecast more pain ahead without reforms that will affect nearly everyone in the country.
In a lengthy and passionate address to parliament, Arseniy Yatsenyuk warned that Ukraine was "on the brink of the economic and financial bankruptcy" and laid out details for fixes needed to put the country back on track, including raising taxes, a freeze on minimum wage and radically higher energy prices.
The reforms will hit households hard, which is likely to severely dent the interim government's tenuous hold on power.
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The IMF loan hinges on structural reforms that Ukraine has pledged to undertake. The IMF said measures will need to include maintaining a flexible exchange rate and reforming the energy sector to make it profitable.
Retail gas and heating tariffs have to be raised "to full cost recovery," the fund said.
Income tax rates, meanwhile, would rise from 15-17 percent now to up to 25 percent.
State energy company Naftogaz announced this week that household gas prices would rise 50 percent beginning May 1 in what it said was part of efforts to make utility costs economically viable for the state by 2018. Some analysts have estimated prices might have to double for consumers.
Ukraine, welcome aboard!!! lol