Foreign currency sales by Ukrainian population exceeded purchases by $237.8 mln in April - NBU

KYIV. May 5 (Interfax-Ukraine) - The amount of foreign currency sold by the population of Ukraine in April 2022 was $237.8 million higher than the amount bought that month, but lower than the $357.4 million recorded in March, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) said.

Non-cash currency continues to form net sales after NBU banned almost all foreign currency purchases by the population after February 24, NBU said on its website. Foreign currency sales in April dropped to $252.6 million from $375.3 million in March, while the volume of purchases fell to $8.6 million from $18.6 million.

Cash market transactions have also declined, even after NBU allowed banks in mid-April to resume sales of foreign currency in amounts that do not exceed its purchases. Whereas banks sold $72 million to the population in March, this figure stood at $62.7 million in April. The volume of foreign currency purchased from the population on the official market also saw a drop in April - to $68.8 million from $71.3 million in March.

On the whole, banks' clients bought more non-cash foreign currency than sold it in April, with net purchases totaling $419 million as compared to $165.1 million in March.

In total, the amount of foreign currency sold by the Ukrainian population since the beginning of this year was $28.2 million higher than the amount of foreign currency bought by the population. Meanwhile, the volume of foreign currently bought by banks' clients exceeded its sales by $2.84 billion.

According to NBU data, transactions on the official cash foreign currency market decreased more than 20-fold in March-April as compared to the figures in February, and more than 30-fold as compared to December's volume.

Non-cash foreign currency sales have halved on average since February 24, while foreign currency purchases have seen an almost 100-fold drop over this period.

NBU Governor Kyrylo Shevchenko said a few days ago that Ukraine's international reserves, according to the latest updates, stood at $26.8 billion at the beginning of May, as compared to $28.1 billion on April 1, $27.5 billion at the beginning of March, and $30.94 billion at the beginning of this year.

NBU's foreign exchange interventions increased to $2.2 billion in April from $1.78 billion in March, $0.31 billion in February, and $1.31 billion in January.