National Bank of Ukraine reduces forex intervention, weakens hryvnia last week

MOSCOW. Feb 9 (Interfax) - The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) reduced the volume of U.S. dollars it sold on the interbank market last week by $65.3 million, or 7.6%, to $794.3 million, Ukrainian media reported citing statistics on the NBU's website.

Over the first four days of last week, the average daily negative balance between forex purchases and sales by legal entities increased to $110.0 million to total $440.0 million from $95.5 million for the same period the week before.

The negative balance between purchases and sales of forex by private individuals from Saturday to Thursday also increased to $36.9 million from $34.0 million the week before last, with non-cash forex purchases exceeding sales.

The official hryvnia-dollar exchange rate, which started last week at UAH 42.8113/$1, weakened over the first three days to UAH 43.1695/$1. However, following Friday's trading, the NBU slightly strengthened the national currency to UAH 43.1405/$1.

The exchange rate on the cash market followed the official exchange rate last week, and therefore, the U.S. dollar strengthened on the whole by UAH 0.12, its buy rate growing to UAH 42.84/$1 and its sell rate to UAH 43.25/$1.