As of 1 February 2021, Ukraine had an equivalent of USD 28.821 billion in international reserves, preliminary data show. In January, international reserves declined by 1.1%, primarily due to repayments on external and domestic public debt. At the same time, the NBU’s interventions in the FX market and FX inflows to the government partially made up for the impact that public debt-servicing expenditures had on international reserves.
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 USD 311.4 million on the servicing and repayment of FX public debt. That includes the USD 197 million that went towards the servicing and repayment of domestic government debt securities, and the USD 66.4 million that was spent on the servicing of Eurobonds. The rest of the funds went to meet the government’s other FX commitments. At the same time, the government received USD 48.2 million in FX inflows from the placement of domestic government debt securities.
- second, the NBU’s interbank FX market transactions. Early January saw litte activity in the FX market, which is typical for that time of the year. The NBU made several interventions to sell a total of USD 20 million and buy USD 40 million in order to smooth out exchange rate fluctuations in the FX market. In the last two weeks of January, the FX 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 USD 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. Data on international reserves and FX liquidity are compiled and published on a monthly basis:
- for preliminary data, no later than on the seventh day after the reporting month ends
- for revised data, no later than on the 21st day after the reporting month ends.
Revised data are available here.