Timoshenko ready to quit Ukraine PM post if new coalition formed

KIEV. March 31. KAZINFORM Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko is ready to resign if a new coalition is created, she said on ICTV television channel on Tuesday.

Timoshenko said that she ?had long ago proposed to all political forces to unite and counteract the global crisis.? ?I had proposed to change ministers and also, if a new coalition is formed, to replace the prime minister as well,? the Ukrainian government head noted adding that ?it did not happen.? The prime minister also criticised the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU). According to Timoshenko, the government is banned from interfering into its policy. ?Therefore all are the hostages of the currency policy. There are no reasons for such a rate (more than 8 hrivnas for 1 US dollar), there are grounds to set the rate of 6.5-7 hrivnas maximum for 1 US dollar,? she noted. ?Loans are not issued, deposits are not returned. But the government for the first time in Ukraine?s history during the crisis has transferred 2.5 billion hrivnas to the Agrarian Fund,? she said. ?In 2009 we will finance the sowing campaign. Due the production decline in Ukraine we have 30 percent less energy consumption,? Timoshenko noted. ?The government has created the State Fund of Energy Coal. We paid wages to miners and there is no debt to them at all and will not be during the whole year,? the prime minister added. Timoshenko said earlier that signs of economic stabilisation had appeared in the country. According to her, industrial output grew in February by 5.4 percent as against January, including in machine building by 21.8 percent, in the light industry by 20 percent and in the woodworking industry by 28.8 percent. ?The figures indicate that positive trends are emerging,? Timoshenko said. ?We can state the national economy is no longer in decline. The figures provide evidence of the beginning of stabilisation.? At the same time, she stressed the world financial and economic crisis was still raging, and Ukraine would also have difficult times. The prime minister believes that agriculture machine building will be the next industry for which the government will draw up an anti-crisis programme. Meanwhile, the government is considering the possibility of reducing the price of gas for sugar refineries to the level of that for steel and the chemical industry. The government expects unemployment in 2009 to reach 7.5-8.5 percent. The opposition Party of Regions says unemployment may reach 15 percent. Official unemployment in Ukraine has for the first time exceeded 906,000 people. According to local mass media, this is slightly more than 3 percent of the country?s able-bodied population. At the same time, 657,000 people received an unemployment allowance of 610 hrivnas (about 80 US dollars) in February. The number of people who have lost their work over the past three months has increased by more than 260,000. Ukraine?s opposition leader Viktor Yanukovich has called on President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko to pass a decision on early parliamentary elections together with the country?s parliament, Kazinform cites ITAR-TASS. ?This will give us a chance to overcome the crisis much faster,? Yanukovich said in an interview with the ICTV television channel on Sunday. He believes that a joint decision on early elections, if endorsed by parliament, may end the stalemate.