At the public session of the Board of the National Bank of Ukraine, which took place on Tuesday 15 November, First Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine Yurii Kolobov stressed that the monetary policy pursued by the National Bank of Ukraine is focused on the achievement and maintenance of price stability.
According to him, the latest data published by the State Statistics Service of Ukraine showed that consumer prices in October exceeded by 4.2% the level of consumer prices registered in December 2010. When calculating consumer prices year-on-year, the inflation rate stood at 5.4%, having reached a record low level in the past eight years.
“In the first half year of 2011 inflation dynamics was alarming raised concerns and we exerted every effort to curb it. The relevant decisions taken by the National Bank of Ukraine proved to be efficient, in particular, with regard to the introduction of tougher requirements for forming required reserves by banks; enhanced differentiation of required reserve ratios with heightened preference for domestic currency deposits; intensification of work aimed at refinancing loan repayment by banks. Thus, refinancing loans worth UAH 14.8 billion have been repaid to the National Bank of Ukraine obver 10 months, of which UAH 6.5 billion before maturity,” noted Yurii Kolobov.
Apart from that, according to him, the National Bank of Ukraine has not drawn any criticism from the IMF with regard to fulfillment of its obligations in the sphere of the monetary policy.
"Since the start of the year, the dynamics of the foreign exchange market have remained predictable. Net foreign exchange earnings from non-residents exceeded USD 12 billion (in the equivalent) over 10 months, the exchange rate of the hryvnia against the US dollar on cashless transactions declined by 0.6%, whereas that on cash transactions on sale of US dollars declined by 0.71%. The real effective exchange rate of hryvnia decreased by 1%. It provided support to all the domestic enterprises regardless of whether they sell their products in the domestic market or outside it,” said Yurii Kolobov.
The First Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine emphasized that the further improvement of the monetary policy pursued by the National Bank of Ukraine will depend on the stock market development, which is one of the key issues.
"With a view to supporting the securities market, the Government, the National Bank of Ukraine and state-owned banks are elaborating approaches to the establishment of the Agency for Refinancing Mortgage Loans, which will issue long-term bonds with additional collateral in the form of pool of mortgage loans,” he added.