(Adds quotes on recapitalisation, hryvnia)
By Natalya Zinets
KIEV, Jan 28 (Reuters) - A senior Ukrainian central bank official said on Wednesday the IMF had confirmed that initial conditions set for a $16.4 billion loan had been met.
An International Monetary Fund mission is in Kiev to assess progress on fiscal and monetary conditions it has set before disbursing the next tranche of the loan. Ukraine received $4.5 billion in November.
"The IMF has confirmed that all obligations which we undertook at the initial stages were fulfilled," the central bank's First Deputy Chairman, Anatoly Shapovalov, told a news conference.
The IMF required that foreign currency reserves be no lower than $26.7 billion by the end of last year and the monetary base to be no higher than 190 billion dollars.
It also required the difference between the official rate, set by the central bank, and the market rate to be no more than 2 percent.
That has not been the case for some of January when the official rate was 7.7/$, but the hryvnia traded above 8.6/$. But Shapovalov said he hoped the IMF would accept the central bank's explanations that it was working to bring the rates closer.
"The hryvnia depreciated 1.5-2 percent since the start of January. But we did not move the official rate in order not to create panic if only because after such a depreciation (in 2008) there is clearly no economic basis for it," he said.
PSYCHOLOGICAL, POLITCAL FACTORS WEIGH
Nevertheless, he said psychological and political factors will influence the hryvnia's rate especially during a time of crisis.
He said a vote on Monday rescinding the 2004 appointment of the central bank chairman had caused an immediate rise in the demand for the dollar, forcing the central bank to spend more than usual on its intervention -- $450 million in three days.
Only the president can initiate the removal of the chairman and he has refused to do so so far.
Panic amongst ordinary people in October and November also caused a dollar rush. Consumers bought $3.3 billion's worth of dollars then, half of the amount sold for the whole year.
But the huge depreciation in the last four months of 2008, from 4.676 hryvnias per dollar to historic lows touching upon 10/$, had helped the trade deficit in January.
He said exporters earned $2.339 billion, while payments for imports were at $2.008 billion. Pressure on the hryvnia remained from foreign currency debt repayment and the central bank intended to continue with intervention for now.
He said Ukraine owed $1.6 billion in foreign debt in January and had paid up $1.536 billion. The central bank is concluding a study of the countries top banks to assess which need additional capital the face of a credit crunch.
He said after meeting officials at top foreign banks on Tuesday, the majority said their parent companies would support them financially through increasing their capital. He said the country's two state banks have either had their capital raised or will soon. (Writing by Sabina Zawadzki; Editing by Ron Askew)