Currency Fever: National Bank spends another US$200 mln to support hryvnia

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) on Wednesday, March 18, sold US$200 million on the interbank foreign exchange market to smooth out excessive exchange rate fluctuations.

Demand for currency continues to prevail over supply due to deterioration of market sentiment amid the global coronavirus spread, the regulator wrote on Facebook on March 18.

The NBU mentioned that the situation on the forex market was favorable last year, when the regulator bought from the market almost US$8 billion.

"So, today we have good enough safety cushion to smooth hryvnia fluctuations," the NBU said.

Read alsoUkraine's hryvnia slumps to UAH 27.27 to U.S. dollar on March 19

Last week, the regulator spent US$981.6 million to support the hryvnia. Some US$538 million was spent over two days this week.

UNIAN memo. The National Bank set the official forex rate for Thursday, March 19, at UAH 27.27 to the U.S. dollar, while at UAH 29.79 per euro.

Trade on Ukraine's interbank forex market closed at UAH 27.37/27.41 per U.S. dollar, whereas at UAH 29.75/29.79 per euro.

The U.S. dollar strengthened against the hryvnia to UAH 28.50 in Kyiv's currency exchange booths, while euro – to UAH 31.50, on Wednesday, March 18.