Business news from Ukraine

NBU’s foreign currency sales amounted to $518.6 mln over week

18 August , 2024  

This week, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) slightly reduced its net sales of foreign currency on the interbank market to $518.60 million from $540.95 million a week earlier, according to the regulator.

According to the data, the central bank did not purchase foreign currency, while sales decreased from $541.2 million to $518.60 million.

The official hryvnia exchange rate decreased by 0.2%, or 10 kopecks, to 41.2110 UAH/$1 over the week, while the hryvnia weakened by about 2 kopecks on the cash market to 41.35 UAH/$1 and by 3 kopecks on the cash market to 41.46 UAH/$1.

Since the beginning of 2024, the dollar has appreciated by 8.4%, or UAH 3.21, at the official exchange rate, and by 12.7%, or UAH 4.65, since the National Bank switched to managed flexibility on October 3, 2023.

In July, the official hryvnia exchange rate fell by 1.4%, or 55 kopecks, to 41.0063 UAH/$1, while in June its decline slowed to 3 kopecks after weakening by 90 kopecks in May.

According to the data published by the NBU during this period, from Monday to Thursday, the negative balance between the volume of purchases of foreign currency by the population and its sale slightly widened from $22.35 million to $24.93 million.

Ukraine’s international reserves in July, according to preliminary estimates by the National Bank, decreased by 1.8%, or $572.3 million, to $37 billion 231.9 million, while net international reserves (NIR) fell by $3 billion to $23.30 billion. According to the Quantitative Performance Criterion (QPC) in the updated EFF Extended Fund Facility program, Ukraine’s NIMR should be at least $28.8 billion by the end of September this year, and at least $26.3 billion by the end of the year.

At the same time, in August, Ukraine already received a $3.9 billion grant from the United States and EUR4.2 billion from the EU, of which EUR1.5 billion was a grant.