REUTERS
Since the beginning of the year, the NBU has sold US$166.83 million on the interbank market.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) sold US$109.5 million on the interbank forex market from March 11 to March 15 to save the hryvnia, the national currency.
This was the highest weekly sale of foreign currency since the beginning of the year, the NBU said.
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The NBU sold US$24.33 million during the first week of January, US$30 million during the second week of January, and US$3 million during the first week of February, it said on its website.
Thus, since the beginning of the year, the NBU has sold US$166.83 million in total on the interbank market.
However, foreign currency purchases by the NBU since the beginning of the year have exceeded the sales by US$594.78 million.
Market players say that one of the reasons why the NBU sold much currency last week was the repayment by the state-run railways operator, Ukrzaliznytsia, of the yield on its loan participation notes (LPN).
As UNIAN reported, Ukrzaliznytsia on March 14 serviced the first part of its LPNs worth US$150 million with the support of the Cabinet of Ministers and paid the due coupon yield on them.
From March 1 to March 18, the Ukrainian hryvnia (the official forex rate set by the NBU) weakened by 0.6% against the U.S. dollar, to UAH 27.01 per dollar, while it strengthened by 0.4% against the euro, to UAH 30.55 per euro.