This week, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) reduced net sales of dollars on the interbank market to $722.6 million from $897.8 million the previous week, according to the regulator.
According to the data, the central bank bought $0.23 million last week, while selling $722.8 million.
The official hryvnia exchange rate increased by 0.5%, or 20 kopecks, over the week, in particular, on Friday it strengthened by 7 kopecks to 40.4478 UAH/$1. On the cash market, the dollar also fell by 20 kopecks to 40.84 UAH/$1.
Since the beginning of 2024, the official hryvnia exchange rate has fallen by 6.4%, or UAH 2.44, and since the National Bank switched to a managed flexibility regime on October 3, 2023, it has fallen by 10.6%, or UAH 3.88.
According to the data published by the NBU during this period, from Monday to Wednesday, the negative balance between the volume of foreign currency purchases and sales by the population widened from $39.32 million to $43.35 million.
As reported, the NBU’s net interventions in May increased to $3.07 billion from $2.28 billion in April this year and $1.93 billion in May last year. Ukraine’s international reserves, according to preliminary estimates of the National Bank, decreased by 7.9%, or $3.4 billion, to $39 billion 033.8 million last month.
At the same time, the official hryvnia exchange rate weakened by 90 kopecks in May, from 39.6370 UAH/$1 to 40.5373 UAH/$1, gradually updating its historical lows every day in the last ten days of the month and approaching the average annual exchange rate of 40.7 UAH/$1 set in the state budget for 2024. In the cash market, the hryvnia also weakened by UAH 1.24 over the month to UAH 41.05/$1.
The National Bank explained this weakening by the government’s increased spending after receiving external financing in March-April, as well as the impact of the largest package of currency restrictions for businesses since the start of the full-scale war announced on May 3.
