Photo from UNIAN
International reserves of Ukraine amounted to the equivalent of US$17.795 billion as of August 1, 2017, which was 0.97% down from July 1 2017, according to the website of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
"A slight decline in reserves was mainly due to expenditures on servicing public debt. Overall, international reserves increased by 15% year-to-date," the NBU said.
Some $157.9 million in proceeds was raised by the Government from the placement of domestic government bonds denominated in foreign currency. The NBU also purchased $64.7 million during the month, the report said.
At the same time, the NBU held a forex sale auction through which $34.9 million was sold. The NBU intervened in the market by selling foreign currency to smooth out excessive volatility in the interbank forex market.
Moreover, some $579.4 million was used in July for repayments and servicing of public and publicly guaranteed debt denominated in foreign currency.
As of 1 August 2017, the amount of Ukraine's international reserves was sufficient to cover 3.7 months of future imports and enable the Government and the NBU to settle their foreign debt obligations and current operations.
Read alsoU.S. investor to inject US$100 mln in gold mining in western UkraineAs UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine's international reserves were estimated at $17.97 billion as of July 1, 2017, which was 2% up from June 1, 2017.
According to the NBU forecasts, the international reserves will amount to $21.1 billion and $26.2 billion by the end of 2017 and 2018 respectively. At the same time, the further cooperation with the IMF and the receipt of the program related financing from the fund remain the determining factor for the forecast.