Ukraine's international reserves up by 30.8% in 2025, reaching $57.3 bln
MOSCOW. Jan 13 (Interfax) - According to preliminary reports, Ukraine's international reserves amounted to $57.293 billion as of January 1, 2026, reaching an all-time high in the independent Ukraine's history, Ukrainian media outlets said with a reference to the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
"The growth of the international reserves was made possible thanks to the three factors: support of international partners, stable operations of the domestic debt market and the National Bank's policy," NBU Governor Andrei Pyshny said.
The international reserves increased by $2.536 billion, or 4.6%, in December 2025 and by $13.497 billion, or 30.8%, overall in 2025.
Ukraine's net international reserves also reached an all-time high, $43.317 billion, in early 2026, having increased by $14.216 billion, or 48.8%, in 2025, the NBU said. Including in December, their growth reached $595 million, or 6.4%.
Securities accounted for 44.8% of reserves, cash, correspondent accounts and deposits for 48.4% and monetary gold for 6.8% in the beginning of the year, whereas their shares were 67.1%, 27.6% and 5.3%, respectively, in the previous year.
According to the published data, the share of dollar assets in reserves grew to 64.6% as of January 1, 2026 compared to 60.5% month ago, whereas it was 86.4% year ago. The euro share decreased to 27.8% in December, compared to 31.9% in November and 6.8% in December 2024.
The government's foreign currency accounts in the NBU received $6.915 billion in December, including $3.913 billion via the accounts in the World Bank, $2.699 billion from the European Union via the Ukraine Facility Program and $304 million from the placement of government bonds, the NBU said.
At the same time, the government of Ukraine paid $668.4 million for servicing and repaying the public debt in foreign currency, including $212.9 million of the debt to the World Bank, $212.7 million for servicing and paying off government bonds, $182.2 million for paying off state derivatives, $5 million of the debt to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), $2.1 million of the debt to the European Investment Bank, and $53.5 million of the debt to its other international creditors. In addition, Ukraine paid $171.4 million to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The NBU sold $4.70 billion on Ukraine's foreign currency market in December, compared to $2.73 billion in November, and purchased $500,000 for the reserves, compared to $1.3 million in November.
"An increase in interventions to sell foreign currency in December is primarily due to the seasonal factor, the intensification of budgetary spending and business operations at the end of the year, at the same time, their amount was lower by 13% compared to December 2024," the NBU said.
The revaluation of financial instruments increased the reserves' cost by $1.162 billion.
According to the balance sheet data, Ukraine received a total of $52.4 billion in international financial assistance, including $32.7 billion from the EU, $13.2 billion from accounts of the World Bank, $3.4 billion from Canada, $900 million from the IMF, and $200 million from the Development Bank of the Council of Europe, in 2025.
Another $2 billion transferred under the agreement between Ukraine and the United Kingdom as part of the ERA initiative was not included in the international reserves due to its intended purpose, the NBU said. In addition, Ukraine received over $3.3 billion from placement of foreign currency government bonds in 2025.
These revenues enabled compensating for servicing and repaying the foreign currency state debt of $6.8 billion and payments to the IMF in the amount of $3.2 billion, as well as the NBU's net interventions to sell foreign currency ($36.2 billion), the NBU said.
"The current amount of the international reserves provides funding for 5.9 months of future exports," it said.
As reported, in October, the NBU updated its international reserves forecast, it was $53.6 billion for 2025, down by $100 million from July's estimates. The forecast for 2026 was increased to $52.2 billion, up by $7.5 billion from previous expectations and the forecast for 2027 increased to $59.2 billion, up by $14 billion, the forecasts were changed due to the anticipation of an increase in amounts of international financial support.
