The International Monetary Fund (IMF) should complete its examination of the Ukraine file by July in order to release further tranches of a $5 billion standby arrangement clinched last year, a top official in President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office said.

“The last reasonable deadline for Ukraine to be submitted to the Fund’s Board of Directors is July as they go on holiday for a month in August,” Oleh Ustenko, Zelensky’s top economic advisor, said in an interview with the RBK  Ukraine news service.

Ustenko said the first resumed tranche could be expected in September.

“On the whole, much has already been done,” he said. “The Finance Ministry is already discussing the 2022 budget deficit, This is not a barrier to the talks. And everything has already been agreed with the National (central) bank.

Parliament, he said, should approve legislation demanded by the Fund in July concerning the law on banks and on the central bank’s independence.

An agreement was important as going to the Eurobond market without one would significantly increase borrowing costs.

Central Bank governor Kyrylo Shevchenko said in an interview last week that outstanding issues with the bank had been settled.

The Fund has already disbursed $2.1 billion, but its latest mission ended in February with the IMF saying more progress was needed – on ensuring central bank independence and a series of other issues, including measures to uproot corruption and ensure an independent judicial system.

Shevchenko also said he had discussed with IMF officials securing Ukraine’s share of a Fund  initiative to expand its resources by $650 billion to help less wealthy countries recover from the financial effects of the Covid pandemic. He put that share about $2.73 billion.