Ukraine had USD 29,921.8 million in international reserves as of 1 February 2023, preliminary data show. In January the international reserves grew by 5% owing to inflows from international partners that compensated for the net FX sales by the NBU to cover the gap between supply and demand on the Ukrainian FX market.
In general, the following factors affected international reserves in January 2023:
First, 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 4,327.7 million. This included:
- USD 3,256.1 million from the EU;
- USD 1,000.0 million from the U.S. (through the World Bank’s trust fund);
- USD 71.6 million from offering FX domestic government debt securities.
The government of Ukraine spent a total of USD 65.0 million on servicing and repaying the FX public debt. In particular, USD 59.0 million was allocated to service and redeem the debt to the World Bank, USD 5 million was spent for repaying FX domestic government debt securities, the rest was spent on debt to other international creditors.
Second, the NBU’s Ukrainian FX market transactions
In January, the NBU sold USD 3,089.6 million and bought USD 28.5 million in the FX market to replenish international reserves according to the balance sheet data. Thus, last month, the net FX sales reduced by about USD 100 million to USD 3,163.5 million in contrast to December 2022.
The NBU maintained foreign exchange interventions close to the pervious month, which was justified, on the demand side, by major budgetary spending at the end of 2022, and, on the supply side supply, by a combination of the seasonal factor (reduced export inflows at the beginning of the year) and effects of the full-scale war on the export business.
Third, the revaluation of financial instruments (due to changes in their market value and exchange rate fluctuations)
In January, the value of financial instruments increased by USD 225.7 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.