UKRAINIAN GOVERNMENT REDRAFTS 1998 BUDGET TO MEET IMF TARGETS. Finance Minister Ihor Mityukov has said the government will submit a revised 1998 budget to the Supreme Council in May, Ukrainian Television reported. The document will put the deficit at 2.5 percent of GDP, compared with 3.1 percent in the current budget. Mityukov said the change is a condition for obtaining new IMF credits. An IMF mission is considering a $2.5 billion loan for Ukraine to support structural economic reforms. JM

UKRAINIAN CURRENCY EXCHANGE CHAIRMAN KILLED. Vadym Hetman, head of the Ukrainian Interbank Currency Exchange, has been shot dead at his home in Kyiv by an unknown assailant. A Kyiv Interior Ministry Directorate spokesman told Interfax on 22 April that the police believe there are three possible reasons for the murder. Two of those reasons are economic. The third is political and related to "serious conflict situations" in the recent elections, in which Hetman made an unsuccessful bid for a parliamentary seat. JM