The international reserves of Ukraine in May 2019, according to preliminary data, decreased by 5.5%, to $19.402 billion due to significant repayments of government debt, according to the NBU’s website.
According to the report, last month the equivalent of $1.801 billion was allocated for servicing and repaying state and state-guaranteed debt in foreign currency. In particular, $1.281 billion were payments for servicing and redeeming eurobonds and government domestic loan bonds. Some $446.5 million was paid on the obligations of the government and the NBU to the International Monetary Fund.
These expenses were partially offset by foreign exchange earnings of $426.7 million from placing government domestic loan bonds and $10 million in financing from the World Bank. The amount of international reserves was also positively influenced by the increase in the value of financial instruments (change in market value, hryvnia exchange rate to foreign currencies) for a total of $80.7 million.
