Ukraine, creditors to reach compromise on debt relief - poll

Ten out of 14 analysts surveyed on Wednesday said that the chance of Ukraine imposing a moratorium on debt payments until September 23 is 50/50. Those surveyed in the poll expected the major sum of the debt to fall by 30% from face value. The respondents lowered the amount of possible relief, as the group of creditors headed by Frankiln Templeton is trying to negotiate more favorable conditions. The committee that owns Ukraine's state securities worth $8.9 billion agreed to relieve only 5% of the debt last week and only under the conditions of a certain economic dynamics, according to a source familiar with the negotiations According to the sources, the Finance Ministry of Ukraine insisted on relieving 40% of the debt in June. The government understands that relieving 40% will be unrealistic, department head at the London office of Pioneer Investment Management Ltd said. According to him, the parties are most likely to agree to relief of 15%. In the second half of July, the government bought more Ukrainian securities, increasing its investment to $75 million. Within four years, Ukraine has to save up nearly $15 billion to pay its foreign debt, and by 2020 lower the debt to 71% of the GDP to meet the conditions of IMF credit programs. As reported, on Wednesday the Finance Ministry agreed to reschedule the meeting with the ad hoc committee of the creditors on August 10-11 upon the committee's request.