UNIAN
The governor of the National Bank of Ukraine on Monday said the central bank may soon consider the possibility of reducing its discount rate and cancelling the administrative restrictions that were introduced to stabilize the currency market.
The National Bank of Ukraine intends to gradually ease monetary policy, according to a posting on the regulator’s page on Facebook, with reference to a television interview given by NBU Governor Valeria Gontareva.
Gontareva said that the restrictions introduced to overcome the crisis in the currency market allowed Ukraine to "comply with the framework" of its cooperation program with the International Monetary Fund.
"These are temporary measures used solely [to stop] panic. Therefore, when the market stabilizes, our monetary policy will be eased gradually, as a refinancing rate of 30% does not allow the market to develop normally,” Gontareva said.
“Currently, the administrative measures have been introduced in the market for a period of three months, in fact, two and a half weeks have passed since then, and if we see that the situation stabilizing faster - we will cancel [the measures] before the expiration of that period.”
The NBU governor also said that Ukraine has received a first tranche of $5 billion under a new lending program with the International Monetary Fund.
A total of $2.5 billion is now on the accounts of the NBU, and $2.5 billion is the on accounts of the Ministry of Finance, Gontareva said.