Preliminary data suggest that Ukraine’s international reserves amounted to the equivalent of USD 16,737.0 million as of 1 November 2018. The international reserves grew by 0.6% within a month. The change in the international reserves volume in October was due to the following.
- First, the NBU’s interventions. Without any depreciation pressure on the hryvnia exchange rate and due to the surplus of foreign currency supply, in particular driven by the inflow of FX earnings from grain exports, the NBU was able to replenish the international reserves through net purchase of foreign currency in the interbank FX market.
- As a result, the NBU’s net FX purchases amounted to USD 198.5 million in October. During the month, the NBU purchased USD 268.5 million, including USD 126.0 million through interventions at the best price and USD 142.4 million through single rate interventions, and sold USD 70.0 million at the single rate.
- Second, the government operations. On one hand, servicing and repayment of public and publicly guaranteed debt in foreign currency amounted to USD 853.0 billion (in the equivalent) in October. This amount included USD 777.8 million spent on servicing and repayment of domestic government bonds. However, the cost was almost offset by earnings from the placement of domestic government bonds amounting to USD 790.7 million (in the equivalent).
- Third, the revaluation of financial instruments (change in the market value and in the exchange rate of the hryvnia against foreign currencies). Last month, their value decreased by USD 36.8 million (in the equivalent).
Overall, as of 1 November 2018, the international reserves covered 2.8 months of future imports and were sufficient for Ukraine to meet its obligations and for the government and the NBU to conduct their current transactions.
It should be noted that the data as of the beginning of November did not include the recent placement of eurobonds by the government. As of 5 November 2018, due to the funds received from this placement, the international reserves of Ukraine increased to USD 18,069 million covering 3 months of future imports.
Data on the international reserves and foreign currency liquidity are compiled and distributed on a monthly basis:
not later than on the seventh day following the reporting month – preliminary data;
not later than on the twenty-first day following the reporting month – revised data.
Revised data are available here.