UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT PRAISES COOPERATION OF GOVERNMENT, PARLIAMENT. Leonid Kuchma believes that Ukraine's executive and legislative branches are now working "very constructively," Kuchma's spokesman, Oleksandr Martynenko, told journalists on 16 February. Speaking about the forthcoming vote of no confidence in the parliament in the 16 April referendum, Martynenko said the vote was proposed in relation to the 14th Supreme Council, while "now we have the Supreme Council of the 3rd convocation" (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 4 February 2000), Interfax reported. With regard to other questions related to the referendum, he said "we need to wait for the Constitutional Court's ruling" and that the president will take action on the basis of that ruling. JM

IMF QUESTIONS UKRAINE'S PLANNED 2000 BUDGET REVENUES. The IMF mission in Ukraine, which has started a detailed review of that country's 2000 draft budget, expressed doubts on 16 February whether Ukraine will achieve its planned revenues, Interfax reported. Deputy Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov made that statement to the agency, while mission head Mohammad Shadman-Valavi refused to comment. Yekhanurov added that Premier Viktor Yushchenko will ask parliamentary deputies "to adopt a number of laws oriented toward making budget revenue items more realistic." JM

UKRAINE POSTS 3.4 PERCENT GROWTH IN JANUARY. The State Statistics Committee has reported that Ukraine's GDP in January 2000 increased by 3.4 percent, compared with January 1999. Last month's inflation was 4.6 percent. The government predicts that GDP in 2000 will increase by 1 percent, compared with 1999, while inflation will not exceed 15.9 percent. In 1999, Ukraine's GDP fell by 0.4 percent, while inflation reached 19.2 percent. JM