REUTERS
The National Bank of Ukraine at 1400 on Tuesday set the hryvnia exchange rate at UAH 16.2414 to the dollar, or eight kopiykas lower than the last historic low rate of UAH 16.1578 set by the NBU on January 30, according to the official Web site of the National Bank of Ukraine.
According to the site, quotes for the hryvnia against the dollar on the interbank market as of 1330 on Tuesday reached UAH 16.2494 to the dollar.
As a result of today’s indicative auction held by the NBU, the hryvnia equilibrium exchange rate was set at UAH 16.2101 to the dollar.
Some quotes for the hryvnia against the dollar on the interbank market, taking into account commission payments, reached UAH 22 to the dollar.
As UNIAN reported earlier, in 2014, the National Bank of Ukraine moved to flexible exchange rate formation on the foreign exchange market, which resulted in the hryvnia practically halving in value against the dollar.
Since the introduction of the hryvnia in 1996, it has three times suffered swift drops in its value: In 1998, its value fell by almost three times, from UAH 1.80 to UAH 5 to the dollar, while at the end of 2008 it sagged to UAH 8 to the dollar. It then dropped again at the end of last year, from UAH 8 to UAH 13 to the dollar, and has been losing value in fits and starts since then.
In late 2014, the NBU shifted to a symbiosis of market and administrative rate regulation, setting an indicative rate for the market through daily auctions in the interbank foreign exchange market using small quantities of its reserves.
Yesterday, on February 2, the National Bank of Ukraine announced the introduction of a single currency exchange rate that is expected by financial market participants to be introduced on February 5.