IMF mission to gauge Ukraine's reform progress

A mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will arrive in Ukraine in late October to check progress of reforms, Deputy Prime Minister Sergiy Tigipko said Wednesday. Experts of the delegation will examine if the Eastern European nation has already met the IMF's requirements, including reducing budget deficit, adopting pension reforms and increasing household gas prices, Tigipko told a press conference. He said the delegation will also discuss with the Ukrainian side a revision of a 15-billion-U.S.-dollar IMF program which has been frozen in February after Ukraine received the second tranche. Tigipko said the next two tranches can be combined, which will replenish his country's foreign exchange reserves with about 3 billion dollars.