Why Ukraine still needs the IMF

At first sight, the sharp fall in Ukraine’s current account deficit over the past few years suggests that the economy’s external vulnerabilities have diminished significantly. But that masks the fact that Ukraine’s short-term external debt has risen and the gross external financing requirement is now even higher than it was a few years ago. The upshot is that the economy remains extremely fragile and all this serves as a reminder that unfreezing the IMF financing package will need to be a key priority for the new government.