The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) maintains its forecast for the grain harvest in 2020 at 72 million tonnes, Deputy Governor of the NBU Dmytro Sologub has said.
“The harvest is basically at the level of last year, the area planted with early crops was slightly less than last year, because more corn was sown, but the yield is almost in line with last year … We keep the estimate for this year’s harvest, respectively, at the level of 72 million tonnes,” he said during a press briefing of the National Bank.
He noted that the NBU also does not see a significant decrease in grain exports in comparison with the forecast.
Dynamics of changes in discount rate of NBU
NBU
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has held a phone conversation with Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kristalina Georgieva to inform her about his plans to nominate a candidate for governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) by the end of the week.
“Informed Kristalina Georgieva that by the end of the week I will have a new candidate for Head of the NBU for Parliament’s approval. It will be an independent technocrat, who will continue the Bank’s independent course. I make all my decisions only in the interests of the Ukrainian people,” the head of state said on Twitter on Tuesday.
The Financial Stress Index (FSI) in April fell and reached 0.2 points by the end of the month after a bounce to 0.3 in March, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) said in a weekly bank survey posted on its website on Wednesday.
According to the document, corporate and banking sub-indices are declining, and the latter, in particular, due to a drop in the yield of securities.
The National Bank said that at the end of April the outflow of hryvnia-pegged time deposits and foreign currency funds of the population stopped. The regulator added that the hryvnia funds of Ukrainians have been at maximum levels for the second week since the beginning of March, and only foreign currency time deposits of the population are still declining.
According to the report based on the data from 22 largest banks, from April 27 through April 30, the hryvnia funds of individuals maintained stable growth of 0.3%, and that of business entities of 0.9%. Foreign currency funds of individuals for the same period increased by 0.2%, and business entities’ decreased by 0.1%, compared with the previous week.
The regulator said that the portfolio of foreign currency loans issued to small and medium-sized enterprises in April markedly worsened, in particular, from the beginning of April, the share of hryvnia loans overdue over a week in the portfolios of banks increased from 25.8% to 30.9%, and foreign currency loans – from 30.7% up to 38.3%.
The National Bank also said that at the beginning of May the share of working bank branches increased from 75.5% to 77.3%, and that of ATMs – from 95.8% to 96.3%.
The National Bank of Ukraine bought $430 million in the market over the past five working days, the hryvnia exchange rate has strengthened from more than UAH 28/$1 to UAH 27.15/$1, NBU Deputy Governor Dmytro Sologub has said. “Only in the last five working days, the National Bank bought $430 million for reserves,” he said in an online interview with Ukrayinska Pravda.
Sologub emphasized that the policy of the National Bank remains unchanged.
“There are fluctuations, we are smoothing them in both directions,” he said.
As reported, over the past week, the NBU bought $ 248 million on the interbank currency
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) on April 1 transferred all the planned UAH 42.7 billion in profit for 2019 to the national budget, according to the regulator’s Facebook page.
“This year, in agreement with the Ministry of Finance, it was decided to transfer the entire amount of the National Bank’s profit to the state budget,” the report says.
It is clarified that in this way the regulator helps the government in overcoming the epidemic in the country.
As reported, state budget revenues in March 2020 amounted to UAH 87.8 billion, which is 10.4% less than the plan and 2.6% more than in March 2019. In addition, the general fund of the state budget received UAH 78.4 billion, which is 10.3% less than the planned figure.
