Andriy Pyshnyy, Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine, has been named Central Banker of the Year 2024 in The Banker’s Global and Europe category.
The Banker’s Central Banker of the Year awards celebrate the central bankers who have best managed to stabilize their economy and stimulate its growth.
The Banker has recognized Andriy Pyshnyy’s important role in maintaining Ukraine’s macrofinancial stability, and commended the NBU’s proactive policy stance for strengthening Ukraine’s remarkable economic resilience even as the war drags on.
“It is an honor to be named Central Banker of the Year. This is the international recognition, which I see primarily as further proof of the capabilities of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people, and our ability to overcome the challenges of the full-scale war with dignity. I consider it a huge privilege and a tremendous responsibility that, together with the NBU’s team of professionals, I can make an important contribution to the country’s resilience in these times of severe challenges,” said Andriy Pyshnyy.
For the second straight year, the NBU has been constantly developing and implementing proven and deeply analytical solutions that make it possible to ensure the stability and uninterrupted operation of the country’s financial system amid a full-scale war.
Through these efforts, the NBU in 2023 managed to:
- sustain confidence in the hryvnia despite the war – according to the latest data, hryvnia retail term deposits rose by 37% in 2023
- reduce inflation to 5.1% in November from 26.6% at the beginning of the year
- commence a cycle of cuts to the key policy rate earlier than anticipated
- engage in constructive dialogue with Ukraine’s key international partners and ensure that the IMF approved its Program Monitoring with Board Involvement for Ukraine
- activate the domestic debt market jointly with the Ministry of Finance, and galvanize large-scale international financial aid so as to cover the budget deficit while completely avoiding monetary financing (which in 2022 ran up to UAH 400 billion)
- successfully transition, in October 2023, from a fixed exchange rate to managed flexibility of the exchange rate
- conduct a resilience assessment of the banking system
- expand POWER BANKING, a network of bank branches that enables more than 2,375 branches to provide essential financial services to the public even during long power outages (at this time, POWER BANKING spans more than 53% of the banking system, except for the branches located in russian-occupied territories and in the battle zone or areas at risk of hostilities).
The Banker is a U.K.-based specialized monthly publication that provides economic and financial intelligence for the world’s financial sector. The Banker is owned by The Financial Times Limited.
Every year, The Banker’s awards go out to the world’s best central bankers and financial institutions.