Ukraine’s international reserves as of July 1, 2021, according to preliminary data, amounted to $28.358 billion (in equivalent), which is 2% more than at the beginning of May this year ($27.84 billion), according to the data of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
“As of July 1, Ukraine’s international reserves, according to preliminary data, amounted to $28.358 billion (in equivalent). In June, they grew by 2% due to foreign exchange charges in favor of the government and NBU interventions, which compensated for the repayment of external and internal obligations of the state,” the report says.
As the National Bank notes, the dynamics of reserves in June was affected by operations on government debt management – the total volume of payments for servicing and repaying government and government-guaranteed debt in foreign currency amounted to $995.6 million (in equivalent).
It is specified that $848 million was spent on servicing and redeeming government domestic loan bonds, $80.1 million – on servicing eurobonds, and the rest – on fulfilling other government obligations in foreign currency.
At the same time, foreign exchange earnings in favor of the government amounted to $1.095 billion (in equivalent), including $726.3 million from the placement of government bonds.
The press service noted that in May, the NBU and the government sent $2.3 million to the IMF.
It is indicated that the dynamics of reserves was also influenced by the operations of the NBU in the interbank market. In particular, the NBU replenished its reserves by $682.8 million due to the fact that for most of the month the supply of foreign exchange on the interbank market prevailed over demand, including due to the growing interest of non-residents in government bonds and the activation of exporters.
In addition, on some days, the regulator smoothed out excessive fluctuations of the hryvnia by selling foreign currency, selling $99.5 million per month.
According to the report, the dynamics of the indicator in June was also influenced by the revaluation of financial instruments – last month their value decreased by $180.8 million in equivalent, according to the National Bank.
As the regulator noted, as of July 1, 2021, the volume of international reserves covers 4.3 months of future imports. It is clarified that this is enough to fulfill the obligations of Ukraine and the current operations of the government and the NBU.
In addition, the NBU clarified that Ukraine’s net international reserves in June increased by $623 million, or 3.6%, to $17.977 billion.
