National Bank of Ukraine reduces forex intervention by 24.8%, hryvnia weakens 0.4% to dollar in April

MOSCOW. May 4 (Interfax) - The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) reduced intervention on the interbank market in April by $1.18 billion, or 24.8%, to $3.59 billion, weakening the hryvnia's official exchange rate to the dollar 0.4%, or by around UAH 0.17 versus UAH 0.59 in March, Ukrainian media reported citing a report on the NBU's website.

Over the past week, the NBU decreased dollars sales on the interbank market by $33.8 million, or 4.2% week-on-week to $778.6 million.

Over the first four days of last week, the average daily negative balance between forex purchases and sales by legal entities fell to $100.1 million from $132.9 million over the same period the week before to total $400.3 million.

The balance between forex purchases and sales on the cash market last week was positive only on Monday, $6 million. From Tuesday to Thursday, the balance was negative at $2.7 million, $2.6 million and $5.7 million, respectively.

The official hryvnia-dollar exchange rate strengthened last week to UAH 43.9630/$1 from UAH 44.0039/$1.

The hryvnia's exchange rate on the cash market almost did not change last week, with its buy rate growing UAH 0.01 to UAH 43.63/$1 and its sell rate up by UAH 0.03 to UAH 44.00/$1.