The volumes of buying and selling currency online by individuals in Ukraine in 2019 were almost equal – $1 billion each, according to the website of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU). According to the report, the abolition of restrictions on buying currency online for individuals did not lead to pressure on the foreign exchange market – about 7% of the cash market operations simply switched to online banking platforms.
“The National Bank will continue currency liberalization in the future. In particular, after the implementation of the split law, the National Bank will allow selling currency online not only to banks, but also to non-banking financial institutions that will come under the supervision of the NBU from mid-2020,” the regulator said.
As reported, on February 7, 2019 the law on currency and currency transactions entered into force. It foresees the introduction of more than 20 exemptions in the foreign exchange market. In particular, online purchase of foreign currency by individuals is allowed, while transferring funds in foreign currency between individuals (except relatives) will still be prohibited.
At the same time, from November 5, 2019 the central bank canceled the daily limit on the purchase of foreign currency and banking metals, which amounted to UAH 150,000.
The balance in the foreign currency account with the Treasury as of the beginning of November 2019 exceeded UAH 20 billion in the hryvnia equivalent, Finance Minister Oksana Markarova has said. In October 2019, it amounted to about UAH 35 billion in the hryvnia equivalent, according to the materials published by the minister on Facebook on Friday.
The highest amount of the Treasury’s forex account balance this year was recorded in June 2019, when it topped UAH 80 billion, after which it started to steadily decrease.
Quotes of interbank currency market of Ukraine
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has improved its hryvnia exchange rate forecast for 2020 as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank did, Ukrainian Finance Minister Oksana Markarova has said, without specifying the concrete figure. In all forecasts and in forecasts of the National Bank, the exchange rate for the next year is strengthened, that is, the rate on which the budget was based (UAH 28.20/$1). Obviously, it will not be like that anymore, the finance minister said in an interview with the Voice of America in Washington.
She added that soon the Finance Ministry and the government will receive an updated forecast of the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture, on the basis of which changes will be made to the draft national budget for 2020.
The forecasts of all the organizations, the National Bank say that the rate is strengthening and this is a long-term trend. Therefore, there will be fluctuations, but we should expect that this strengthening is not some small fluctuation of this year, but this is a new normality, Markarova said.
As reported, since the beginning of 2019, the hryvnia exchange rate has strengthened by 10.3%, to UAH 24.835244/$1.
The National Bank of Ukraine does not officially announce its exchange rate forecasts, at the same time, it sends them to the government for drawing up the draft national budget.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) in the period from September 30 through October 4, 2019 first since the start of August entered the market to support the hryvnia, selling $200 million – almost the same amount as for the entire period since the beginning of 2019.
According to a posting on the website of the central bank, all these interventions were made at the single exchange rate (using the matching tool).
At the same time, the National Bank last week managed to acquire $42.5 million, as a result of which the net sale of foreign currency amounted to $157.5 million.
In general, since the beginning of 2019, the NBU has bought $4.199 billion at the interbank currency market, sold $448.2 million, in particular, it bought $930 million in September, $316 million in August, $1.271 billion in July, and $322 million in June, and sold only $ 17 million early August.
The volume of purchase of cash currency by the population in August 2019 exceeded the volume of sales by $97 million.
According to the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), the volume of currency purchase for the second month in a row exceeds the volume of sales, while in June and May Ukrainians sold more currency than they bought.
In general, since the beginning of 2019 the population has sold $56.4 million more currency than bought.
The NBU said that in August compared with July Ukrainians reduced the purchase of foreign currency by 5.1%, to $1.424 billion, sales by 5.7%, to $1.327 billion.
