Ukraine's international reserves stand at US$28.8 bln in January / REUTERS

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has said Ukraine had an equivalent of US$28.821 billion in international reserves as of February 1, 2021.

In January, international reserves declined by 1.1%, primarily due to repayments on external and domestic public debt, as reported on the NBU's website.

Read alsoNBU raises annual cap on int'l transactions by individualsAt the same time, the NBU's interventions in the forex market and forex inflows to the government partially made up for the impact that public debt-servicing expenditures had on international reserves.

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Overall, international reserves in January were affected by the following factors:

  • first, government transactions to manage public debt. In total, the government spent an equivalent of US$311.4 million on the servicing and repayment of forex public debt. That includes the US$197 million that went towards the servicing and repayment of domestic government debt securities, and the US$66.4 million that was spent on the servicing of eurobonds. The rest of the funds went to meet the government's other forex commitments. At the same time, the government received US$48.2 million in forex inflows from the placement of domestic government debt securities.
  • second, the NBU's interbank forex market transactions. Early January saw little activity in the forex market, which is typical for that time of the year. The NBU made several interventions to sell a total of US$20 million and buy US$40 million in order to smooth out exchange rate fluctuations in the forex market. In the last two weeks of January, the forex market was balanced, and so the central bank did not intervene.
  • third, the revaluation of financial instruments (due to changes in their market value and exchange rate fluctuations). Last month, the value of these instruments declined by an equivalent of US$68.7 million.

"International reserves now cover 4.7 months of future imports, sufficient for Ukraine to meet its commitments, and for the government and the NBU to make their current transactions," the NBU said.

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