National Bank of Ukraine reduces forex intervention by 4.9%, weakens hryvnia last week

MOSCOW. March 10 (Interfax) - The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) reduced intervention on the interbank market last week by $39.6 million, or 4.9%, to $769.9 million, while the official exchange rate of the national currency, the hryvnia, to the U.S. dollar declined by 1.6%, or nearly by UAH 0.71, Ukrainian media reported citing a report on the NBU's website.

Over the first four days of last week, the average daily negative balance between forex purchases and sales by legal entities decreased to $84.5 million from $117.9 million over the same period the week before to total $337.9 million.

At the same time, the negative balance between purchases and sales of forex on the cash market from Saturday to Thursday increased to $60.4 million from $17.3 million the week before last, with non-cash forex purchases exceeding sales all those days.

The official hryvnia-dollar exchange rate, which started last week at UAH 43.0996/$1, weakened to all-time lows over three consecutive days on March 4-6 to end the week at UAH 43.8069/$1.

The exchange rate on the cash market followed the official exchange rate last week, its buy rate growing by UH 0.67 to UAH 43.58/$1 and its sell rate growing by UAH 0.75 to UAH 44.08/$1.