Ukraine's balance of payments surplus equal to current account deficit in August - NBU

MOSCOW. Oct 6 (Interfax) - Ukraine had a balance of payments surplus of $3.0 billion in August 2025 compared to a surplus of $4.9 billion in August 2024, and a surplus of $1.9 billion in the first eight months of this year, compared to a deficit of $0.5 billion in the first eight months of last year, Ukrainian media reported, citing the National Bank of Ukraine's (NBU) website.

There was a current account deficit of $3.1 billion in August this year, compared to a surplus of $2.9 billion in August last year. The main reasons were a widening of the merchandise trade deficit as exports fell and imports grew, as well as a reduction in grants from international partners to $1.1 billion from $5.5 billion a year ago.

Merchandise exports fell 9.1% year-on-year in August to $2.9 billion, the biggest drops being for food - 13.9%, machine-building goods - 25.8% and metallurgy goods - 17.9%. Exports rose for food products - 17.9%, timber -13%, chemical products - 9% and industrial goods - 11.5%.

Merchandise imports rose 17.5% year-on-year to $7.0 billion, driven by non-energy imports, particularly machine-building goods - 27.6% and food products - 24.9%, but energy imports fell 10.8%.

The services trade deficit was again $0.6 billion in August. Services exports fell 8.6% year-on-year due to drops for transportation, financial and government services, while services imports fell by 5.9%.

There was a current account deficit of $22.4 billion for January-August 2025, down from $9.6 billion in January-August 2024. Excluding reinvested earnings and grants from international partners, the deficit was $27.7 billion, compared to $13.6 billion for 8M 2024.

Private remittances fell 5.5% year-on-year to $0.7 billion in August, including a drop of 8.9% in wages received by Ukrainians from abroad. Remittances fell 12.1% to $5.7 billion in 8M 2025, including 17.7% for net wages and 5.0% for private transfers.

Financial account net inflow was $6.1 billion in August 2025 compared to outflow of $2.8 billion in August 2024, driven by public sector receipts, with public administration operations seeing inflow of $4.6 billion compared to outflow of $2.4 billion in August 2024 due to loans received from international partners.

Foreign direct investment was estimated at $173 million in August 2025, compared to $159 million for the same month in 2024. It included $93 million reinvested from banking sector income, and $103 million from the real sector.

The National Bank estimated net incoming foreign direct investment for 8M 2025 at $1.4 billion, including reinvested income of $0.8 billion, while for 8M 2024 the figure was $3.4 billion, including reinvested income of $2.6 billion.

Net borrowing from the rest of the world totaled $3.1 billion in August 2025 against $7.8 billion in August 2024. It rose almost five-fold in 8M 2025 to $22.2 billion, from $4.5 billion a year previously. Net repayments to the IMF reached $218 million in August.

The volume of cash currency outside banks grew $0.5 billion in August 2025, half as much as in August 2024, and grew $5.6 billion in 8M against $9.8 billion for the corresponding period of 2024.

Ukraine's international reserves amounted to $46.0 billion, which covers five months of future imports, as of September 1.