11 Aug 2009 20:01

National Bank of Ukraine lowers refinancing rate to 15.5%-17%

KYIV. Aug 11 (Interfax) - The National Bank of Ukraine has lowered interest rates on overnight loans secured by state bonds to 15.5% from 16% and rates on unsecured loans to 17% from 18%, the bank said on its website.

The new working refinancing rates take effect from August 12. It was reported earlier that the National Bank's base interest rate was cut to 10.25% from 11% starting from August 12.

The working refinancing rates have been left unchanged since June 15. Prior to this, they totaled 18% and 20%, respectively.

The National Bank refinanced 55.8 billion hryvni worth of operations in January-July 2009 and attracted 39.5 billion hryvni in funds from banks during this period.

The official exchange rate on August 11 was 7.71 hryvni/$1.