Daily outflow on Ukrainian cards abroad at around $100 mln - NBU

KYIV. May 24 (Interfax-Ukraine) - The daily volume of transactions abroad on hryvnia cards issued in Ukraine stands at around $100 million, thus putting significant pressure on Ukraine's reserves, Oleksiy Lupin, director of the National Bank of Ukraine's (NBU) Open Markets Department, said.

"We have a $100 million outflow on our cards every day," Lupin said on social media.

NBU on May 21 lifted restrictions on the exchange rate at which banks write off hryvnia funds from customers' accounts if customers pay with hryvnia cards abroad or withdraw cash from cards.

Apart from that, NBU has also halved the limit for withdrawing currency at ATMs abroad from hryvnia cards to 50,000 hryvni.

"It also minimizes 'card tourism'. According to available data, a significant part of hryvnia card transactions abroad is cash withdrawals from ATMs. This cash is then returned to Ukraine and enters the illegal cash market. That is, de facto scarce foreign exchange resources that can be spent on non-priority needs, which is now very important to minimize," NBU said.

Equalizing the conditions of direct (through cash transactions) and indirect (through card transactions) purchase of currency in Ukraine and abroad by the population is a measure that will help prevent unproductive withdrawal of capital and protect the country's international reserves, Lupin said.

As reported, NBU's dollar sales in the third week of May once again were by far larger than the amount of U.S. dollars it purchased over this period. NBU's dollar sales in the third week of May stood at $650.4 million, which is nearly 80% more than during the second week of May, and 10% more than in the first week of May.

NBU estimated Ukraine's international reserves as of May 1, 2022, at $26.94 billion, a 4% drop from $28.11 billion reported at the beginning of March.