27 Apr 2022 10:29

Ukraine had some $27 bln in international reserves on April 22 - NBU head

KYIV. April 27 (Interfax-Ukraine) - Ukraine's international reserves stood at approximately $27 billion on April 22, which is consistent with their level as of February 24, Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Kyrylo Shevchenko said in an interview with Euromoney.

It is "primarily due to support from international financial institutions, which has exceeded $4 billion," Shevchenko said.

NBU said earlier that Ukraine had $28.1 billion in international reserves as of April 1, 2022, a 2% increase from the $27.5 billion at the beginning of March, but they dropped to $27.4 billion by mid-April.

Most transactions on the market are now carried out with the NBU's participation, and Ukraine spends its reserves primarily on the purchase of critical imports, he said.

In addition, the Ukrainian government has not stopped and is not planning to stop servicing public debt, "which, in my opinion, is the only right strategy," Shevchenko said.

The deviation of the exchange rate in the black market from February's official exchange rate was moderate: 33 hryvni/$1 as compared to the official 29.25 hryvni/$1, though in the first days after February 24 it reached 39-40 hryvni/$1, the NBU head said.

The amount of client deposits in the banking system has even increased: as of April 22, they have risen by the equivalent of 83.6 billion hryvni, with hryvnia retail deposits going up by 21.6%, he said.

Ukrainian banks hold a sufficient stock of high-quality assets and have access to refinancing instruments, Shevchenko said. Thus, the volume of blank refinancing loans taken out by banks fell below 9 billion hryvni, less than one-third of its peak value 32.3 billion hryvni seen in early March.