REUTERS
Ukraine's international reserves today exceed US$26 billion and are sufficient both to fulfill the country's current obligations and to smooth out excessive exchange rate fluctuations on the forex market.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) on Tuesday, March 10, sold US$270 million on the interbank foreign exchange market, which helped stabilize the hryvnia, Ukraine's national currency.
"The National Bank conducted interventions to sell foreign currency and smooth out fluctuations. To this end, US$270 million was sold. Almost the entire amount was sold during the first half of the day, and then the situation in the forex market was relatively calm and did not require significant intervention measures from the NBU," the regulator wrote on Facebook on March 10.
Demand significantly prevailed over supply on the interbank foreign exchange market, primarily due to psychological factors caused by deterioration of market sentiment amid the global coronavirus spread and the oil prices fall shock in recent days.
The NBU emphasized that there are no fundamental factors for significant deterioration of the situation since Ukraine continues to boost goods supplies abroad under major staple exports, while not being an exporter of oil, whose prices fall, on the contrary, allows saving on energy imports.
According to the regulator, the reduction in non-residents' investment in hryvnia government bonds is not yet significant and there is no panic withdrawal of investment from Ukraine.
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In general, the central bank called the statistics of the forex market since year-start quite positive, as the regulator's purchases of foreign currency exceeded sales by US$360 million, while those by the population were almost US$500 million up against sales as of the beginning of this week.
"The National Bank will continue to closely monitor the situation in the financial markets and, if required, conduct foreign exchange interventions. Ukraine's international reserves today exceed US$26 billion and are sufficient both to fulfill the country's current obligations and to smooth out excessive exchange rate fluctuations in the forex market," the regulator added.
As UNIAN reported earlier, over the weekend, the price of Brent crude oil tumbled by 30% to US$34 per barrel, the most since the Gulf War in 1991. Currencies of a number of developing countries and stock quotes sharply sank following the collapse in oil prices.
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On the morning of Tuesday, March 10, the U.S. dollar grew in value to UAH 25.80 in Kyiv's currency exchange booths, while the euro – to UAH 29. Quotations of the hryvnia against the U.S. dollar in the interbank currency market by noon dropped by 35 kopiykas, to UAH 25.30/25.35 per dollar, whereas against the euro – by 40 kopiykas, to UAH 28.75/28.80.