Ukraine had $1.87 bln consolidated balance of payments deficit in Jan

MOSCOW. March 4 (Interfax) - Ukraine had a consolidated balance of payments deficit of $1.87 billion or 1.07% of GDP in January 2024 against a surplus of $1.1 billion in December 2023 and surplus of $1.21 billion in January 2023, Ukrainian media reported, quoting the National Bank of Ukraine's website.

The current account deficit narrowed to $0.51 billion in January 2024 from $0.73 billion in December and $1.1 billion in January 2023.

"The deficit narrowed primarily due to a lower merchandise and services trade deficit caused by an increase in merchandise exports and reduction of expenditure by Ukrainian citizens abroad," the regulator said.

The deficit excluding reinvested income and grants from international partners was $0.5 billion, compared to $1.8 billion in January last year.

The NBU said merchandise and services exports rose 12.3% year-on-year and 5.3% compared to December, while imports decreased by 1.1% and 20.1%, respectively.

Merchandise exports came to $3.3 billion and imports to $5.1 billion.

Merchandise exports rose mainly due to an increase in supplies of ores and other mineral products by 2.1-fold year-on-year, as well as food products by 6.2%, in particular oils and fats by 13.5%, while grain exports fell 4%, oilseeds 4.9% and machine-building goods 22.2%.

Exports to EU countries rose $48 million or 2.7%, however their share of exports decreased from 61.5% to 56.2%; exports to Asian countries fell $29 million or 3.4%, their share decreasing 3.9 percentage points to 24.3%.

The NBU said energy imports fell significantly, by 60.6%, which totally offset growth of 22.8% for non-energy imports. Imports of timber and its products rose 55.4%, ferrous and non-ferrous metals 53.1%, machine-building goods 29.4% and food 22.9%.

The share merchandise imports from Asian countries increased from 32.6% to 35.4%, and from EU countries from 44.2% to 44.3%.

The services trade deficit narrowed to $0.52 billion in January 2024 from $1.4 billion in January 2023, primarily due to a reduction of 30.5% in imports, while services exports increased 6%.

Net borrowing from the rest of the world - the combined current and capital transactions account - fell to $486 million from $1.1 billion a year earlier. Net capital outflow on the financial account amounted to $1.4 billion versus $2.3 billion net inflow in January 2023.

The National Bank said net inflow from public sector transactions fell to $287 million in January 2024 from $3.4 billion in January 2023 and was caused by net loans from international partners of $261 million and net payments from non-residents on domestic government loan bonds totaling $19 million. The NBU estimated net incoming foreign direct investment at $168 million, down from $379 million a year earlier. The net increase in real sector's external position excluding foreign direct investment was $1.4 billion.

The NBU said the international reserves as of February 1, 2024 amounted to $38.5 billion, enough to cover 5.1 months of future imports.