The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) this week again increased net sales of foreign currency on the interbank market to $646.30 million from $624.49 million a week earlier, according to the regulator’s data. According to them, the central bank refrained from buying foreign currency for the third week in a row, while sales jumped from $624.49m to $646.30m.
The official hryvnia exchange rate rose by 17 kopecks over the week. – UAH/$1 to 41.0592 UAH/$1, while on the cash market the hryvnia strengthened by about 11 kopecks when buying – to 41.30 UAH/$1 and by 10 kopecks when selling – to 41.40 UAH/$1
Since the beginning of 2024, the dollar at the official rate has appreciated by 8%, or by UAH 3.05, and since the transition of the National Bank on October 3, 2023 to the regime of managed flexibility – by 12.3%, or by UAH 4.49.
Thus, this month the hryvnia managed to fall by 0.1%, or by 5 kopecks, while in July the official hryvnia exchange rate fell by 1.4%, or by 55 kopecks – to 41.0063 UAH/$1. In June, its decline slowed to 3 kopecks after weakening by 90 kopecks in May.
As evidenced by the data that the NBU managed to publish for this period, from Monday to Thursday the negative balance between the volume of currency purchases and sales by the population gradually widened from $5.96 mln to $36.63 mln.
Ukraine’s international reserves in July, according to preliminary estimates of the National Bank, decreased by 1.8%, or $572.3 million – to $37 billion 231.9 million, while net international reserves (NIR) fell by $3 billion – to $23.30 billion. According to the quantitative performance criterion (QPC) in the updated program of expanded financing of the EFF, Ukraine’s NIR at the end of September this year should be at least $28.8 billion, and at the end of the year – at least $26.3 billion.
At the same time, according to the Ministry of Finance, Ukraine received about $8.4bn of external financing in August. In particular, $4.5bn from the EU under the Ukraine Facility, of which $1.6bn is a grant, as well as $3.9bn grant from the US through the World Bank’s PEACE in Ukraine project.
