The National Bank of Ukraine’s net profit in the second quarter of this year amounted to UAH 17.59 billion, up 22.2% year-on-year, according to the NBU’s report on its website.
According to the report, net interest income almost halved to UAH 10.53 billion from UAH 20.70 billion, but UAH 7.69 billion of profit from transactions with financial instruments at fair value, compared to UAH 4.26 billion of loss in the second quarter of last year, improved the financial result overall.
In the first half of the year, the NBU’s net profit amounted to UAH 43.28 billion, down 37.9% compared to the first half of last year, when this result was largely due to UAH 48.82 billion of profit from operations with financial assets and liabilities in foreign currency and gold, compared to UAH 7.74 billion in the first half of this year.
According to the NBU, its consolidated assets increased by 17.1% to UAH 2.293 trillion in January-June this year. “The change in the volume of assets is primarily the result of a 37% increase in international reserves – to $39.0 billion at the end of the first half of 2023 from $28.5 billion at the end of 2022,” the central bank explained.
He specified that the volume of non-resident securities in its portfolio in the first half of 2023 increased by 23% to UAH 858.5 billion, and the volume of funds and deposits in foreign currency and precious metals almost doubled to UAH 464.4 billion.
At the same time, the lion’s share – almost 98% – of non-resident securities is denominated in US dollars, including 92.8% of US issuers, while at the beginning of the year these figures were 95.3% and 84.0%, respectively.
During the reporting period, the NBU, in particular, got rid of securities denominated in euros, which amounted to 1.5% of the portfolio at the beginning of the year.
At the same time, the NBU notes that the volume of its loan portfolio decreased by 4.7 times to UAH 8.6 billion due to the repayment of long-term debt on operating loans by banks.
As of the end of the first half of 2023, the NBU’s liabilities amounted to UAH 1.921 trillion (83.8% of assets), up 17.8% over the half-year.
In particular, banks’ funds increased by 2.3 times to UAH 203.8 billion, funds of state and other institutions increased almost sixfold to UAH 311 billion, while liabilities on loans received from the IMF decreased by 21.5%, and in August the NBU repaid another SDR98.5 million.
As a result, the NBU’s equity increased by 13% to UAH 371 billion in the first half of 2023, due to the accumulation of this year’s profit.
The NBU indicated that its expenses related to the production of banknotes, coins and other products, administrative expenses, and staff costs in the first half of 2023 remained at the same level as in the corresponding period of 2022 and amounted to UAH 3 billion.
In particular, staff salaries decreased by 7.7% year-on-year to UAH 1.227 billion in the first half of this year, including an 8.9% decrease to UAH 612 million in the second quarter.
At the same time, payments to the management increased by 11.1% to UAH 36.01 million, including 10.5% to UAH 13.54 million for members of the NBU Council.
