REUTERS
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has continued a step by step abolition of forex restrictions, expanding opportunities for legal entities to withdraw foreign currency abroad on the basis of individual licenses, according to the NBU website.
"Now, the legal entities will receive an additional opportunity to transfer foreign currency on the basis of individual licenses. The transfer should not exceed $50.000 (in the equivalent) within one calendar month under one license," the report says, with reference to the decision No. 544 entering into force on August 21.
Earlier, such transfers under individual licenses were possible in three cases: when depositing currency outside Ukraine; in case of transfer by a resident guarantor of obligations under the loan provided by an international financial institution or with the participation of export credit agencies; or when paying the entrance or membership fees in foreign currency.
"Easing of restrictions will solve the problems of the companies engaged in foreign economic activity. On the other hand, this step has no negative impact on the currency market, given the small amounts of such transactions," said Serhiy Parhomenko, director of the department of public markets.
As UNIAN reported earlier, on February 24 the National Bank of Ukraine introduced a number of restrictions on the foreign exchange market, including the mandatory inspection of import contracts with an advance payment worth more than $50,000, the obligatory registration of letter of credits to complete import contracts with advance payments worth more than $500,000, and a prohibition on lending to buy currency.
The restrictions are designed to stop the rapid devaluation of the hryvnia, which since the transition to flexible exchange rate has depreciated against the dollar in 2014 and two months of 2015 by 3.8 times to a new historic low of UAH 30.01 to the dollar.
After introduction of the NBU restrictions and the allocation of the first tranche under the IMF new cooperation program with Ukraine, the hryvnia strengthened with the exchange rate fluctuating within a range of UAH 21-23 per U.S. dollar in the past five months.
According to the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies of July 21, 2015 between Ukraine and the International Monetary Fund, the complete abolition of restrictions on the foreign exchange market is possible after successful completion of the partial restructuring of the public debt, recapitalization of banks by the results of stress tests in 2014 and full transition of "Naftogaz Ukrainy" to purchase the currency directly on the interbank market, but not from the reserves.