Preliminary data suggests that as of 1 September 2018, Ukraine’s international reserves amounted to the equivalent of USD 17,231.7 million. The reasons for reserves to decrease by 2.9% mom in August were the following:
- The NBU’s interventions to smooth out excessive fluctuations in the hryvnia exchange rate in the interbank FX market. Overall, USD 668 million was sold in August, including USD 311.9 million through interventions with the selection of the best price and USD 356.1 million through the auctions. However, USD 16.7 million was bought to replenish the reserves in August.
- Repayment and servicing of the external debt. The equivalent of USD 607.4 million was paid to the IMF. In addition to the IMF payments, repayment and servicing of the public debt denominated in foreign currency amounted to the equivalent of USD 447.9 million including USD 389.2 million of repayment and servicing on the public securities.
- Government operations on attraction of foreign currency funds through debt securities placement. As the result, the amount of the placed external and internal debt government bonds made USD 725.0 million and USD 382.1 million, EUR 69.1 million respectively.
- Revaluation of financial instruments (change in the market value and in the exchange rate of hryvnia against foreign currencies) that amounted to the equivalent of USD 19.9 million.
Overall, as of 1 September 2018, the international reserves cover 2.9 months of future imports and are sufficient for Ukraine to meet its obligations and for the government and the NBU to conduct their current transactions.