National Bank of Ukraine increases forex intervention by 34.7%, weakens hryvnia last week

MOSCOW. March 16 (Interfax) - The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) increased intervention on the interbank market last week by $267.4 million, or 34.7%, to $1.37 billion, while the official exchange rate of the national currency, the hryvnia, to the U.S. dollar declined by 1%, or nearly by UAH 0.43, 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 grew to $97.1 million from $84.5 million over the same period the week before to total $388.4 million.

At the same time, the negative balance between purchases and sales of forex on the cash market from Saturday to Thursday dropped to $38.5 million from $60.4 million the week before last.

The official hryvnia-dollar exchange rate, which started last week at UAH 43.7292/$1, posted new all-time lows on March 10, March 12 and March 13 to end the week at UAH 44.1636/$1.

The exchange rate on the cash market followed the official exchange rate last week, its buy rate growing by UH 0.41 to UAH 43.99/$1 and its sell rate growing by UAH 0.38 to UAH 44.43/$1.