Preliminary data showed that, as of 1 March 2023, Ukraine's international reserves stood at USD 28,864.6 million. In February, the international reserves reduced by 3.5% on the back of NBU’s FX sales to cover the gap between supply and demand in the FX market of Ukraine, which were largely compensated by FX funding provided to the government.
In general, the following factors affected international reserves in February 2023:
First, the NBU’s transactions in the Ukrainian FX market
In February 2023, the NBU sold USD 2,479.7 million in the FX market and bought USD 27.7 million to replenish international reserves according to the balance sheet data. Thus, last month, the net FX sales reduced by about USD 609 million mom to USD 2,452.0 million.
Reduced FX interventions of the NBU comparing to the previous month are attributed to both relief of pressure brought by supplementary budget expenditure at the end of 2022 and a stabilization in exchange rate expectations, owing to the NBU’s consistent monetary policy and abstaining from monetary financing the budget deficit in 2023.
Second, inflows to the government’s accounts and spending on servicing and repaying the public debt
FX inflows to the government’s accounts with the NBU amounted to USD 2,395.8 million. This included:
- USD 2,065.4 million from the World Bank, including USD 1,246.9 million from the U.S. (through the World Bank’s trust fund);
- USD 330.4 million from offering FX domestic government debt securities.
The government of Ukraine spent a total of USD 570.4 million on servicing and repaying the FX public debt. In particular, USD 354.0 million was allocated to service and redeem FX domestic government debt securities, USD 154.1 million – to service the debt to the World Bank, the rest was spent on servicing debt to other international creditors.
In addition, Ukraine repaid USD 306.3 million to the International Monetary Fund.
Third, the revaluation of financial instruments (due to changes in their market value and exchange rate fluctuations)
In February, the value of financial instruments decreased by USD 130.7 million due to revaluation.
International reserves are now covering 3.7 months of future imports.
Data on international reserves and FX liquidity are compiled and published on a monthly basis:
- for preliminary data, no later than on the 7th 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.
Data on Ukraine’s international reserves, public debt management, and revaluation of financial instruments are presented in the U.S. dollar equivalent.