LOAN SUSPENDED

IMF spokesman declared the day before that the issue of Ukraine's conformity to the requirements of further installments worth $542 million, as per the standby agreement signed last August, will be discussed in April.

Ms. Solianyk noted that World Bank loans have been included in the 1998 budget as income. All told, Ukraine counted on one billion dollars this year. Thus the postponement came as a very painful blow. Analysts believe that the both IMF and World Bank acted this way in response to Verkhovna Rada Speaker Oleksandr Moroz's criticism of international financial institutions and in retaliation for using borrowed funds to cover the budget deficit instead of channeling them into private business as originally intended by the creditors.