NBU's forex interventions up 17.3%, hryvnia strengthens last week

MOSCOW. Jan 62 (Interfax) - The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) increased dollar sales on the interbank market by $156.7 million, or 17.3% week-on-week to around $1.062 billion last week, Ukrainian media reported, citing the statistics published on the regulator's website.

In the first four days of last week, the average daily negative balance of currency purchases and sales by legal entities grew to $137.6 million from $107.2 million for the same period the week before, amounting to $550.2 million in total, the NBU said.

The cash market's negative balance from Saturday to Thursday also grew to $36.4 million from $30.8 million the week before last. Sales of non-cash forex were larger than its purchases for all of these days.

The official hryvnia-dollar exchange rate, which began last week at UAH 43.4130/$1, strengthened to UAH 43.1759/$1 in the space of three days, ending the week at the level of UAH 43.1667/$1.

The dollar exchange rate on the cash market followed the trajectory of the official exchange rate, weakening by around 11 kopecks in total over the week. The buy rate was UAH 43.02/$1, and the sell rate was UAH 43.39/$1.