KYIV, May 16 – In the second week of May, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) again sold significantly more currencies than it bought: U.S. dollars equaling $321.8 million, euros equaling EUR 29.7 million, but this is approximately 37.6% less than in the first week month.

According to the NBU on its website, last week it acquired only $5.5 million and EUR 4 million.

Last week, the National Bank adopted Resolution No. 96 dated May 9, which refused non-cash transactions for the purchase and sale of currency in euros, and announced that it would conduct such transactions exclusively in U.S. dollars.

As reported, in the first week and a half after the war started by Russia on February 24, the net purchase of foreign currency by the National Bank amounted to $690.3 million and EUR 20 million, since the ban on the purchase of foreign currency had just been introduced, and the list of critical imports had not yet been significantly expanded.

However, in the following weeks, the volume of currency purchases by the central bank began to fall, while the volume of its sale increased. As a result of NBU intervention in April, they rose to $2.2 billion from $1.78 billion in March, $0.31 billion in February and $1.31 billion in January.

A number of experts, in particular, former deputy governor of the National Bank Oleh Churiy, who oversaw foreign exchange policy, proposed to revise the list of critical imports towards its significant reduction, since today it covers 89% of merchandise imports in 2021.

In total, since the beginning of the year, the National Bank has purchased $1.804 billion and EUR 110.97 million on the market, and sold $6.484 billion and EUR 1.789 billion, including since the beginning of the war, the purchase of foreign currency amounted to $1.147 billion and EUR 110.97 million, and the sale was $3.714 billion and EUR 1.789 billion.

Ukraine's international reserves as of May 1, 2022, according to the NBU, amounted to $26.94 billion, which is 4% more than at the beginning of March ($28.11 billion). (om/ez)