Business news from Ukraine

UKRAINE’S INTERNATIONAL CURRENCY RESERVES DECREASED IN APRIL, BUT AMOUNT TO SIGNIFICANT $26.9 BLN

As of May 1, 2022, according to preliminary data, Ukraine’s international reserves amounted to $26 billion 944.9 million (in equivalent), which is 4% less than at the beginning of April ($28.107 billion), according to the data National Bank of Ukraine, released on Friday.

“As of May 1, 2022, Ukraine’s international reserves, according to preliminary data, amounted to $26.945 billion. According to the results of April, they decreased by 4%, taking into account sales by the National Bank, which was partially offset by foreign exchange earnings in favor of the government,” the regulator explained.

He noted that the dynamics of reserves in April was affected by public debt management operations: the total volume of payments for servicing and repaying state and state-guaranteed debt in foreign currency amounted to $614 million in equivalent.

It is specified that $420 million of them were directed to servicing and redemption of domestic government bonds denominated in foreign currency, $78 million – to redeem Eurobonds.

At the same time, in April, foreign exchange receipts in favor of the government amounted to $1 billion 887 million in equivalent, including EUR629 million and $93 million received from the World Bank, EUR300 million from the French government, $236 million from the Government of Canada and EUR120 from the EU.

In addition, the NBU and the government of Ukraine paid $84 million in favor of the IMF in April.

The NBU operations on the interbank market also affected the dynamics of reserves. In April, the regulator sold $2.244 billion in the foreign exchange market and bought $43 million. In general, by the end of April, the volume of net sales of foreign currency by the National Bank in the interbank foreign exchange market amounted to $2.2 billion.

In addition, the dynamics of the indicator was affected by the revaluation of financial instruments (changes in market value and the exchange rate of the hryvnia against foreign currencies): last month their value decreased by $150.3 million in equivalent, according to NBU data.

The regulator also clarified that the net international reserves (NIR) of Ukraine in April decreased by $791 million, or 4.5%, to $16.779 billion.

As reported, at the beginning of 2022, Ukraine’s international reserves amounted to $30.941 billion, NIR – $20.767 billion.

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