Net sales of dollars by the National Bank of Ukraine rose to $510.7 million last week compared to $475.0 million a week earlier and $231.4 million two weeks earlier.
According to the information of the National Bank on its website, from August 12 to September 16, it purchased $17.5 million, which is 2.5 times more than the previous week, but sold $528.2 million compared to $482 million a week earlier.
This week, on the cash market, the hryvnia again weakened by about 50 kopecks, and its rate came close to the level of UAH 42/$1, while the official rate of UAH 36.57/$1 was fixed since July 21.
As reported, in August the volume of interventions of the National Bank in the market increased slightly – to $1.33 billion from $1.2 billion in July, but still remained much less than in June ($3.96 billion), May ($3.4 billion) and April ($2.2 billion).
Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said that in August the volume of foreign aid to Ukraine amounted to a record $4.6 billion since the beginning of the war, compared with $1.7 billion in July and $4.4 billion in June.
In general, from the beginning of the year to September 16 inclusive, the NBU purchased $3 billion 114.2 million and EUR111.0 million on the market, and sold $17 billion 862.8 million and EUR1 billion 789.1 million.
Including since the beginning of the war, the purchase of foreign currency has reached $2 billion 457.3 million and EUR111.0 million, and the sale – $14 billion 92.6 million and EUR1 billion 789.1 million.
The international reserves of Ukraine as of September 1, 2022, according to the NBU, amounted to $25.436 billion (in equivalent), which is 13.6% or $2.679 billion more than at the beginning of August. In July, the fall in reserves amounted to 1.6%, or $371.5 million, in June – 9.3%, or $2 billion 343.8 million.
The state-owned Ukrgasbank (Kyiv) repaid ahead of schedule UAH 1 billion of refinancing received from the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) this year, the bank’s press service reported on Tuesday.
“On August 30, the state-owned Ukrgasbank made an early repayment of a refinancing loan in the amount of UAH 1 billion received from the NBU this year. The repayment was due to the positive dynamics of attracting funds from legal entities and individuals in August this year,” the report says.
JSB “Ukrgasbank” was founded in 1993. The state, represented by the Ministry of Finance, owns 94.94% of the shares of the financial institution.
According to the data of the National Bank of Ukraine, as of July 1, 2022, Ukrgasbank ranked 5th (UAH 139.671 billion) in terms of total assets among 68 banks operating in the country.
The profit of Ukrainian banks in January-July 2022 decreased by 10.8 times – to UAH 3.4 billion, the press service of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) reported on Tuesday.
According to the regulator, the income of banks for 7 months of this year increased by 26% against the figure for the same period last year – up to UAH 189.082 billion. Including commission income increased by 20.5% to UAH 112.374 billion.
At the same time, the result from the revaluation and from purchase and sale operations was positive and amounted to UAH 27.214 billion, while for the same period last year it was negative and amounted to UAH 409 billion.
At the same time, the expenses of the banking system in January-July 2022 increased by 1.68 times compared to this indicator in 2021 – up to UAH 185.675 billion, including deductions to reserves – by 12.3 times, up to UAH 73.56 billion . At the same time, fee and commission expenses increased by 1.87% to UAH 18.8 billion,
As reported, Ukrainian banks doubled their net profit in 2021 to UAH 77.5 billion compared to UAH 41.3 billion in 2020.
The depositary of the National Bank of Ukraine resumes operations with government securities following a similar decision made by the specialized regulator of capital markets – the National Commission for Securities and Stock Market (NSSM).
“The resumption of circulation of government securities as the main investment instrument by capital market participants will provide an additional resource for economic recovery. The resumption of operations with these securities will also allow financial institutions to determine their market value,” the National Bank said in a press release on Sunday.
The NBU clarified that, despite the absence of restrictions on transactions with government securities, it has postponed the application of tariffs for depository services until December 22, 2022.
“This step will allow capital market participants to gradually adapt their business processes to new conditions in the financial markets. As before, the depository of the National Bank urges its clients to minimize and, if possible, cancel tariffs for depositary services for their clients during the absence of tariffs of the NBU depository in order to attract additional investments to support the country’s financial front,” the regulator stressed.
He clarified that these changes were approved by the Resolution of the NBU Board dated August 6, 2022 No. 173 “On the non-application of tariffs for depositary services provided by the NBU, as well as for services for accounting and circulation of NBU certificates of deposit and invalidating certain regulatory legal acts of the NBU” which came into effect on 7 August.
As reported, on August 4, the National Securities and Stock Market Commission adopted decision No. 1053, by which it canceled almost all restrictions imposed with the start of a full-scale Russian invasion on work in the capital and commodity markets.
“The step to unblock the capital and commodity markets is timely and balanced, because market participants have confirmed their readiness for the development of the financial sector,” Prime Minister Denis Shmihal was quoted in a statement by the National Securities and Stock Market.
Leading stock exchanges have already announced the restoration of trading in all securities since August 8.
According to the decision of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission, the bans remain in relation to transactions related to individuals and legal entities of the Russian Federation and Belarus. In addition, settlements on the second part of the REPO operation under REPO agreements concluded before the start of the war, as well as applications for redemption from participants in joint investment institutions of open and interval type, are allowed only from August 22, and for earlier transactions, permission from the Commission is required.
At the same time, according to market participants, the activation of the secondary government bonds market may lead to an increase in bond rates, which will create some problems for the Ministry of Finance, which so far refuses to significantly increase them following the decision of the National Bank in early June to raise the discount rate from 10% to 25%. Only at the last few auctions, the Ministry of Finance raised the yield of securities maturing in a year or two to 14-16% per annum.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) expects a reduction in international reserves in the second half of the year by 8.6% – from $22.8 billion to $20.8 billion and maintaining them at this level in 2023, the regulator’s forecast says.
According to him, at the end of 2023, the reserves will amount to $21.2 billion, and in 2024 they will grow to $28.7 billion.
At the same time, the current account balance, according to the regulator’s forecasts, will be positive and amount to $6.4 billion by the end of 2022, while at the end of last year it was negative and amounted to $3.2 billion.
The NBU expects that by the end of 2023 and 2024 this figure will be negative and amount to $3.9 billion and $8.8 billion, respectively.
