The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) increased its interventions in the interbank market last week by $56.8 million, or 4.5%, to $1 billion 329.0 million, according to statistics on the regulator’s website.
According to the National Bank, during the first four days of last week, the average daily negative balance of currency purchases and sales by legal entities rose to $210.3 million from $195.0 million during the same period a week earlier, totaling $841.2 million.
In the retail foreign exchange market, the average daily net deficit nearly doubled: from Monday through Thursday, it stood at $46.6 million, compared to $24.6 million during the same period the previous week. Retail purchases of non-cash foreign currency exceeded sales every day.
The official hryvnia-to-dollar exchange rate at the beginning of last week was 44.5505 UAH/$1, and by the end of the week it had weakened to 44.7273 UAH/$1.
A similar trend was observed in the cash market, where the hryvnia’s exchange rate against the dollar weakened by 7–8 kopecks over the past week: the buying rate fell to 44.48 UAH/$1, while the selling rate fell to nearly 44.88 UAH/$1.
