Bloomberg: Ukraine Weighs Higher Gas Tariffs in 2013 to Unlock IMF Bailout

Ukraine, seeking to access a $15.6 billion International Monetary Fund bailout frozen because of government unwillingness to raise household natural-gas prices, is considering higher tariffs from 2013, a minister said.

The former Soviet republic, which faces parliamentary elections in October, may be willing to raise costs in stages starting next year, Foreign Minister Kostyantyn Gryshchenko said yesterday in an interview. The Washington-based lender has demanded the increases to narrow the budget deficit by trimming losses at state-run energy company NAK Naftogaz.

“We aren’t ready for any steep rise,” Gryshchenko said in the interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. Ukraine wants the IMF lending to resume “as soon as possible,” he said. “We’ve met all the conditions except the increase in natural-gas prices.”   MORE