The Ukrainian parliament on Thursday passed the necessary laws to release the next tranche of the $17.5 billion IMF loan. 

The parliament passed laws associated with utility prices, the ability for the state energy company to collect receivables and other anti-corruption changes.

Other laws changed included the lifting of a variety of tax reliefs for large farmers. Farming represents 10% of Ukrainian GDP but only brings in 1% of the country’s taxes, something the IMF requested the government to reform.

The IMF will meet at the end of the month before releasing the next tranche of the loan which is to be $1.7 billion.

Another $1 billion will also be released by the World Bank as a result of the law changes.

Ukrainian Economy

Ukraine’s economy is in desperate need for financial aid.

The trouble in the east of the country has brought huge instability marked by spiralling inflation, a collapsed currency and large contractions in GDP.

However, surprising figures were released by the Ukrainian Statistics Office today, where unemployment was shown as being 1.7% for June. This is an improvement from the previous month where it stood at 1.8%.