Ukrainians increase net spending abroad to $1.5 bln in Sept - finance minister

MOSCOW. Oct 26 (Interfax) - A trend of a monthly decline in net spending of Ukrainians abroad, which was observed since May 2022, stopped in September when the spending grew from $1.3 billion in August to $1.5 billion, Ukrainian Finance Minister Sergei Marchenko said.

According to the Ukrainian media, he said at the International Expert Conference on the Recovery of Ukraine in Berlin on Tuesday that such spending was practically non-existent in January-February 2022 and spiked to $1.6 billion in March, $1.7 billion in April, and $2.4 billion in May.

The spending was on decline in the following months to $1.9 billion in June, $1.4 billion in July and $1.3 billion in August.

"Security needs to be provided so that people come back," Marchenko said.

He added that the Black Sea Grain Initiative had helped level off the Ukrainian trade balance: the deficit dropped to $0.4 billion in September from $1.1 billion in August, $1.7 billion in July, $1.6 billion in June, and $0.8 billion in May.

The total trade deficit of the first two months of the year stood at $1.1 billion. It was replaced by $0.9 billion surplus in March and balance in April.