REUTERS

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has explained why the hryvnia, Ukraine's foreign currency, strengthened in April.

"Forex (FX) market conditions remained favorable in April. The prevailing FX supply from banks' clients exceeded demand, in part, due to record inflows of foreign portfolio investment in hryvnia bonds," the NBU said in its Macroeconomic and Monetary Review for April, posted on the NBU website.

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"This led to the prevailing appreciation trend in the FX market throughout most of the month – the hryvnia strengthened by 2.3% month-on-month (m-o-m) against the U.S. dollar, and by 3.1% m-o-m against the euro," the NBU said.

That said, the National Bank intervened in the FX market in order to build up reserves and smooth out excessive fluctuations in the market.

"Over the month, the positive balance of the NBU's FX market operations amounted to nearly US$300 million," the review said.

As reported by UNIAN, the Ukrainian hryvnia in April 2019 strengthened against the U.S. dollar by 2.6%, to UAH 26.49 (the official forex rate set by the NBU).

Over the period under review, the hryvnia (the official forex rate) also strengthened against the euro, by 3.5%, to UAH 29.49 per euro, the NBU said on its website.

Since the beginning of the year (January-April 2019), the hryvnia has strengthened by 4.3% to the dollar, and by 7% to the euro.

Ukraine's national budget for 2019 is based on the projected forex rate of the hryvnia to the U.S. dollar set at UAH 29.4 per U.S. dollar by the end of the year.

According to the forecast of experts polled by UNIAN, the hryvnia against the U.S. dollar at the end of 2019 will be about UAH 30 per U.S. dollar.