National Bank of Ukraine's forex intervention down by 8.4% last week

MOSCOW. May 18 (Interfax) - The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) last week reduced forex intervention on the interbank market by $65.9 million, or 8.4%, to $717.7 million, Ukrainian media reported citing a statement 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 decreased to $81.5 million from $103.6 million over the same period the previous week to total $325.8 million.

The negative balance between forex purchases and sales on the cash market from Saturday to Thursday decreased to $9.5 million from $13.2 million the week before last, with non-cash forex sales exceeding purchases all those days.

The official hryvnia-dollar exchange rate, which started last week at UAH 43.8550/$1, weakened to UAH 43.9569/$1 by its end.

The exchange rate on the cash market saw a similar trend, its buy rate decreasing by UAH 0.08 to UAH 43.64/$1 and its sell rate weakening by UAH 0.1 to UAH 44.02/$1.