National Bank of Ukraine increases forex interventions 3.5% in week

MOSCOW. April 27 (Interfax) - The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) last week increased interventions on the interbank market by $29.6 million or 3.5% to $812.4 million, Ukrainian media reported, quoting data on the NBU website.

In the first four days of last week, the average daily negative balance of foreign currency purchases and sales by legal entities increased to $132.9 million from $122.4 million for the same period the week before and totaled $531.5 million.

The retail FX market saw positive balances on Monday and Tuesday of $12.7 million and $2.5 million, respectively, turning negative on Wednesday and Thursday at $6.1 million and $7.1 million.

The official hryvnia-dollar exchange rate weakened from UAH 43.8943/$1 at the beginning of the week to UAH 43.9412/$1 at the end of it.

On the cash market, the hryvnia exchange rate strengthened by 5 kopecks over the week: purchases - to approximately UAH 43.58/$1, and sales to approximately UAH 43.96/$1.