REUTERS
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has reported that the country's international reserves as of June 1, 2017, amounted to US$17.618 billion, which was 3% up on the level recorded as of May 1, 2017.
Since the beginning of the year, the reserves have expanded by 14%, the NBU cited rough estimates.
The growth of reserves in May was due to the purchase of $521.2 million by the NBU on the interbank forex market. What is more, $38.1 million arrived from the placement of government currency-denominated bonds, and EUR 8 million came from the European Commission.
At the same time, the NBU took $158.6 million from the reserves in May to service and repay state and government-guaranteed debt. Another $71.8 million was transferred by the Ukrainian government and the NBU as payment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Thus, the amount of Ukraine's international reserves as of June 1 covers 3.7 months of future imports and is sufficient to meet Ukraine's obligations and handle current Cabinet and NBU operations.
Read alsoUkraine's forex reserves expand to US$17.6 blnAs UNIAN reported earlier, the NBU on April 5, 2017, received a new disbursement worth $1 billion from the IMF, which together with the second macro-finance assistance tranche from the European Union allowed Ukraine to boost its international reserves to $16.7 billion, the highest level since the middle of 2014.
The NBU expects that the international reserves will grow to $21.1 billion by the end of 2017 and further to $26.2 billion by the end of 2018 with ongoing cooperation with the IMF and related disbursements under the Extended Fund Facility being a decisive factor.