The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will officially announce soon that they intend to lend the country of Ukraine $16.5 Billion.

[...]Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s late Friday cut its currency rating on Ukraine even though it believed an IMF loan would be offered, saying a lack of internal political agreement could mean the country couldn’t implement the IMF’s program to fix the economy.

Also, the loan — higher than the earlier estimates of between $11 billion and $15 billion — is small in comparison to the country’s external debt, which analysts at Capital Economics in London estimate at $55 billion due this year.

Last week while talks were under way, Neil Shearing, emerging Europe economist at Capital Economics, warned that “While early intervention by the IMF should avert a full-blown balance-of-payments crisis, macroeconomic fundamentals in Ukraine may remain weak for some time to come.”

Mr. Strauss-Kahn said the program to be implemented by Ukraine would aim to restore financial stability, help make the banking sector liquid and solvent and cut inflation, while trying to insulate companies and households as much as possible from a deep output decline.[...]

[...]The announcement follows Friday’s $2.1 billion loan to Iceland and underlines how the IMF after years in the shadows has come to the forefront of helping weaker nations hit by the financial crisis. Pakistan and Hungary are also talking to the IMF.[...]