Ukrainians’ spending abroad, which is recorded under the item “travel imports,” will decrease by approximately 10% in 2025 compared to last year and will amount to about $12 billion, according to the forecast of Serhiy Nikolaychuk, First Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
“In 2023, Ukrainians’ spending abroad reached its peak – about $20 billion. After that, we are seeing a gradual decline: quite sharp in 2024, and this year we expect another decline of about 10%,” he said in a podcast by the Center for Economic Strategy.
Nikolaichuk clarified that Ukrainians’ card payments abroad are included in these statistics as part of imports of services in the “travel” category. At the same time, the reduction in spending is occurring despite the fact that Ukrainian migration continues.
“We estimate that due to migration alone, Ukraine’s population will decrease by about 200,000 people in 2025. But people who have moved abroad are gradually adapting, earning more income locally and using fewer resources from Ukraine, including through card payments,” the NBU representative explained.
According to the National Bank, in the first nine months of 2025, Ukrainians made transactions abroad with Ukrainian bank cards worth UAH 262.0 billion, which is 1.9% more than in the same period last year. Of this amount, UAH 213.9 billion was spent at retail terminals, and UAH 48.1 billion was spent on cash withdrawals.
The number of transactions abroad increased by 9.3% to 275.6 million transactions, of which 270.2 million were non-cash payments, while cash withdrawals accounted for 5.5 million.
