Ukraine’s gold and foreign exchange reserves reach record level
On 1 September 2017, Ukraine’s international reserves were the equivalent of $18.035 billion.
The last time the reserves were higher than this was the start of 2014, the National Bank of Ukraine reported.
The reserves are currently 16% higher than they were at the start of 2017. At the end of August the reserves had grown by $240 million, or 1.3%.
In August, the following factors influenced the reserve amounts: the arrival of $351.5 million from the placement of domestic state bonds denominated in foreign currency; monetary interventions of the NBU in the interbank market, as a result of which the National Bank’s net purchase was $234 million; payments by the government and the National Bank to the International Monetary Fund amounting to $448.7 million; the government’s payment for maintenance and repayment of state foreign currency debt (aside from payments to the IMF) amounting to $50.1 million, of which $12.3 million was for maintenance and repayment of domestic state bonds denominated in foreign currency.
The current international reserves will cover 3.6 months of future imports. The National Bank predicts that the reserves will grow to $20 billion by the end of the year.