Ukraine's central bank doesn't sell currency as forex market gets balanced on its own

For the first time in the past few weeks, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) on March 24 did not have to sell foreign currency on the interbank forex market to handle excessive fluctuations, whereas the regulator earlier sold US$50-US$300 million daily.

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"For the first time in the past few weeks, the National Bank did not have to carry out interventions to sell currency. The interbank market got balanced without our participation," the NBU said on Facebook on March 24.

Trading on Ukraine's interbank forex market was mainly in the range of UAH 27.7 – UAH 28 per U.S. dollar, the regulator added.

As UNIAN reported earlier, higher demand for foreign currency, seen in Ukraine for the second week in a row, was caused by the deterioration of market sentiment amid the global spread of the novel coronavirus. However, late last week, the currency market rush began to decrease, as Ukrainians sold more currency than they bought.

The NBU said it would impose no restrictions on Ukraine's forex market and would continue to mitigate excessive fluctuations by selling foreign currency from its reserves.

Two weeks ago, the regulator spent US$981.6 million to support the hryvnia. Over US$1 billion was spent last week.

Today, Ukraine's international reserves are estimated at over US$24 billion, the regulator said.

The central bank in 2019 bought US$7.9 billion on the interbank forex market to replenish the country's international reserves.