The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) increased sales of foreign currency on the interbank market last week by $98.4 million, or 18%, to $643.6 million, according to the regulator’s statistics on its website.
According to the statistics, the central bank has not bought any foreign currency over the past two weeks.
Last week, the National Bank bought the most foreign currency since the beginning of March, but it is still less than in February this year and roughly equal to the amount of foreign currency purchased in the same week in March last year.
Data released by the regulator during this time show that the negative balance between the volume of foreign currency purchases by households and the volume of foreign currency sales narrowed last week from $26.89 million on Monday to $20.24 on Thursday.
The official hryvnia exchange rate weakened by 2 kopecks to 41.5277 UAH/$1 over the week.
The same was the case on the cash market, with a narrow spread of 41.46-41.56 UAH/$1.
‘Since the beginning of March, the Ukrainian foreign exchange market has undergone significant changes in the dynamics of the dollar. While in February the dollar was gradually strengthening, in early March it began to decline, followed by a gradual recovery after 10 March,’ analysts of the currency exchange market operator KYT Group commented on the market situation in their March review.
According to them, the Ukrainian cash FX market was affected by a decline in demand for the dollar following a large-scale import of cash currency in February: according to the NBU, $1.316 billion in cash dollars and the equivalent of $450 million in euros were imported into Ukraine.
The NBU’s interventions help to smooth out exchange rate volatility and maintain a controlled situation on the market, but the increase in budget spending in March traditionally creates additional demand for foreign currency, which may affect the correction of the hryvnia exchange rate, KYT Group experts added. They expect that in the short term, over the next 1-3 weeks, the dollar is likely to remain in the range of UAH 41.30-42.30/$1.
As reported, the NBU’s net interventions in February fell to $3bn from $3.75bn in January.
In February 2025, Ukrainians’ purchases of foreign currency exceeded sales by $0.95bn, which is also down from $1.48bn in January this year.
Ukraine’s international reserves as of 1 March 2025, according to preliminary data, amounted to $40.15 billion, which is 6.7%, or $2.86 billion, less than a month ago.
The Cabinet of Ministers has set the average annual rate of the official hryvnia/US dollar exchange rate in the 2025 state budget at 45 UAH/$1.
https://interfax.com.ua/news/economic/1058312.html
