The volume of currency sales by the National Bank of Ukraine from June 20 to June 24 fell to $933.02 million from $1 billion 55.6 million a week earlier.
According to the information of the National Bank on its website, last week it acquired $7.5 million, which is in the range of volumes of the last six weeks (from $5.5 million to $8.3 million).
Thus, the net sale of currency amounted to $925.5 million, which is better than last week, but still quite a lot – this is the third largest volume of weekly interventions since the beginning of the war.
As reported, the NBU raised the discount rate from 10% to 25% on June 3 in order to increase the attractiveness of the hryvnia and reduce pressure on the country’s international reserves. And earlier, from May 21, the National Bank canceled the upper limit of both the cash selling rate by banks in Ukraine and the hryvnia conversion rate into foreign currency on their cards outside the country, and also halved the ceiling for cashing hryvnia cards abroad – to the equivalent of 50 thousand .UAH per month.
These measures made it possible to reduce the volume of interventions in the first two weeks of June, but last week they rose again, exceeding $1 billion for the second time since the start of the war.
At the same time, thanks to the measures taken by the NBU, the dollar exchange rate on the “black” market fell from UAH 37.5-38.5/$1 with a significant reduction in the spread and almost equaled the rate in bank exchangers. Last week it was about 35.55-35.8 hryvnia/$1, this time the hryvnia grew a little – up to 35.4-35.6 hryvnia/$1.
As reported, NBU interventions in May rose to $3.4 billion from $2.2 billion in April, $1.78 billion in March, $0.31 billion in February and $1.31 billion in January.
Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko previously predicted that Ukraine’s international financial support would rise to $4.8 billion in June from $1.5 billion in May. The National Bank of the country is also counting on such growth, whose international reserves in May decreased by about $2 billion to $25.1 billion. $3 billion or more.
In total, from the beginning of the year to June 24, the National Bank purchased $1 billion 848.6 billion and EUR110.97 million on the market, and sold $12 billion 156.1 million and EUR1 billion 789.11 million.
Including since the beginning of the war, the purchase of foreign currency amounted to $1 billion 191.7 million and EUR110.97 million, and the sale of $9 billion 385.9 million and EUR1 billion 789.11 million.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) condemns the decisions of businesses and people in the current difficult situation to set prices for goods and services in foreign currencies, in particular in dollars or euros.
“Setting prices in Ukraine in foreign currency is illegal. Such actions are not only immoral in a war, but are also a direct violation of Ukrainian legislation,” the National Bank said in a statement on Thursday.
The NBU recalled that the hryvnia as a national currency is the only legal tender on the territory of Ukraine and must be accepted by all individuals and legal entities without any restrictions throughout the country and for all types of payments in accordance with Article 35 of the Law “On the National Bank of Ukraine”.
The regulator clarified that, in particular, he became aware of cases of setting prices for rental housing in euros in Ukraine, which violates the law.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) plans to gradually abolish the requirement for legal entities and individuals-entrepreneurs to purchase foreign currency only against obligations, in particular, from July 20, it will allow businesses to buy foreign currency within EUR 100,000 (in equivalent) per day without the presence of grounds and obligations and the submission of supporting documents to the bank.
According to the NBU press service on Thursday, the relevant changes were approved by regulator’s board decision No. 80 dated July 13.
“We have decided to cancel this requirement gradually. This will allow us to assess the impact of each such step on liberalization on the state of the market,” the NBU press service said, citing Deputy Governor of the NBU Yuriy Heletiy said.
According to the National Bank, the current easing will not have a significant impact on the functioning of the Ukrainian foreign exchange market, but it will expand the business opportunities for risk and liquidity management.
It is indicated that the next steps towards the complete removal of the requirement for the purchase of foreign exchange against obligations will be carried out after analyzing the situation in the domestic and foreign markets, the state of financial stability, and also subject to a favorable situation in the foreign exchange market.
The net supply of foreign currency from the Ukrainian population since the beginning of the year amounted to $1.6 billion, Head of the Council of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Bohdan Danylyshyn has said.
“In the segment of foreign exchange transactions of individuals, the supply of foreign currency continues to prevail over demand. In particular, since the beginning of June, the net sale of foreign currency by individuals (in cash and non-cash form) has exceeded $300 million, and since the beginning of the year amounted to almost $1.6 billion,” he wrote on Facebook.
As reported, the net supply of foreign currency by the population of Ukraine in March amounted to $182 million, and in April – $422 million.
The net supply of foreign currency from the Ukrainian population since the beginning of the year as of May 11 amounted to $970 million, Head of the Council of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Bohdan Danylyshyn has said.
“Net sales of foreign currency by the population from the beginning of the year to May 11 amounted to $706 million in cash transactions and $264 million in non-cash transactions,” he wrote on Facebook on Wednesday.
Danylyshyn said that in May the exchange rate of the hryvnia on the interbank FX market continued to strengthen for the third week in a row, reaching its high in the past month and a half amid an increase in the supply of foreign currency from the banks’ clients.
According to him, the FX reserves of the NBU as of May 11 amounted to $27.9 billion, which is 4%, or $1.2 billion less than at the beginning of the year, and 0.4%, or $100 million, less than at the beginning of the month.
The head of the NBU Council added that in April, the volume of transactions of banks’ clients with non-cash foreign currency, taking into account swap transactions, decreased 12.1% as for transactions for the sale of foreign currency and by 8.5% as for transactions for the purchase of foreign currency.
At the same time, the prevalence of demand for foreign currency over supply in respect of client operations in April amounted to $520 million (including $286.5 million on a forward basis) and was satisfied mainly through the sale of foreign currency by banks.
Japan Rating and Investment Information, Inc. (R&I) has upgraded Ukraine’s foreign currency issuer rating from B to B+, rating outlook is stable.
“When fiscal consolidation efforts to date and enhanced resilience to external shocks are also taken into account, economic and fiscal conditions are expected to recover in 2021 and beyond,” R&I said in a Thursday press release.
R&I said that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) financial support for Ukraine, together with loans from the World Bank and the European Union (EU), will help stabilize the government’s funding, which R&I views favorably.
R&I believes that the improved political and social stability under the leadership of President Volodymyr Zelensky will allow the government to focus on rebuilding the economy.
R&I said that among other positive moments is that foreign reserves are on the rise, standing at $28.8 billion as of end-July 2020, which covers 4.9 months of imports. Gross external debt is declining as a percentage of GDP. As of end-March 2020, the ratio was 75.8%. With external debt maturing within one year falling to 29.3% of GDP, the short-term external debt to foreign reserves ratio declined to around 1.6x from more than 2x seen until the previous year.
There is little concern over the government’s foreign currency liquidity, R&I said.
The banking sector has improved profitability. Supported by growth in deposits, the sector also maintains stability on the liquidity front.
“R&I will follow their [government and National Bank of Ukraine’s] efforts to ensure financial stability, as the impact of the coronavirus is anticipated to emerge going forward,” the agency said.
In R&I’s view, containing infections, reinforcing the healthcare system and rebuilding the economy are top priorities for the government’s fiscal policy.
