Russian and Ukrainian finance ministers to meet in Peru this week

The finance ministers of Russia and Ukraine will hold talks during the International Monetary Fund’s visiting session due this week in Lima.

Por: Redacción Gestion.pe

(Reuters).- Ukrainian finance minister Natalie Jaresko said on Monday she will meet her Russian counterpart at this week’s International Monetary Fund meeting in Peru, but will not be negotiating a deal on the $3 billion Ukraine bond that Russia holds.

Ukraine is in the process of a huge debt restructuring but Russia has said it will not sign up to any write-down on the money it is owed, claiming the bond is a bilateral ‘official sector’ loan and therefore should be exempt.

“I have a meeting with the minister of finance of Russia but I am not going into negotiations,” Jaresko said at a bondholder meeting in London.

“I will go into any details he would like to discuss about this (existing debt restructuring) offer… there is no negotiations per se (on the Russian-held bond).”

She added that the IMF had not yet decided whether it viewed Russia’s bond as official sector debt.

She later told Reuters that she did not expect the issue to be cleared up at this week’s meeting and that no decision would probably be required until the start of next year.