Ukraine's international reserves grow 11% in Nov, shrink by 10% in Jan-Nov
MOSCOW. Dec 7 (Interfax) - Ukraine's international reserves grew by 10.7% to the equivalent of $27.951 billion as of December 1 from $25.244 billion a month earlier.
The reserves grew in November thanks to international aid, a decrease in net foreign currency sales by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) and moderate debt payments in forex, Ukrainian media reported, citing the NBU.
Ukraine's international reserves stood at $30.941 billion at the beginning of 2022. The reserves therefore shrank by 9.7% in the first eleven months of 2022. The reserves stood at $27.422 billion on February 24, the NBU said.
Net international reserves grew by 16.1% to $17.736 billion in November after edging up by 9.6% in the previous month, the NBU said.
The NBU said that the international reserves in November were affected by transactions to manage the state debt. Foreign currency inflows to Ukraine's account at the NBU totalled $4.617 billion in November, including $2.53 billion from the European Union, $1.5 billion from the United States through a World Bank trust fund, $517.8 million from placement of domestic government bonds and $69.1 million from other international creditors.
Overall payments on servicing and repaying the public forex debt totalled $605 million, including $46.6 million on repayment of debt to international creditors, $521.4 million on servicing domestic government bonds and $37 million on repayment of debt to the EBRD.
Ukraine also paid $118.8 million to the International Monetary Fund.
The reserves were also affected by the NBU's transactions on the interbank forex market, where it sold $1.633 billion and bought $63.9 million. As a result, it was a net seller of $1.569 billion.
The reserves were also affected by revaluation of financial instruments that resulted in an increase in value of $380.7 million.
The current international reserves cover 3.5 months of future imports, which is sufficient for Ukraine to meet its commitments and for the government and the NBU to be able to make their current transactions, the NBU said.
