Ukraine's Finance Ministry, NBU looking for ways to relaunch OVGZ market - finance minister

MOSCOW. Dec 20 (Interfax) - The Ukrainian Finance Ministry together with the National Bank (NBU) intends to relaunch the market for internal government borrowings, set their market rate, ensure their 100% rollover next year, and minimize the NBU's acquisition of domestic government bonds (OVGZ), preferably bringing it to zero, Finance Minister Sergei Marchenko said.

According to Ukrainian media, Marchenko made these remarks on Monday at the How Ukraine's economy survived through 2022 discussion, arranged by the Center for Economic Strategy.

NBU Governor Andrei Pyshny, for his part, confirmed that joint steps would be taken to relaunch the OVGZ market.

The week before last, the NBU decided to raise bank reserve requirements, allowing OVGZ to account for half of banks' reserves, a move expected to boost demand for these government bonds by approximately 50 billion hryvni.

The Finance Ministry, in turn, raised the rates on 5-month to 24-month government bonds to 14%-19.5% per annum, though these rates stand at 20% and higher per annum on the secondary market.

The financial stability council, which also includes senior officials of the NBU and the Finance Ministry, said at its meeting on December 8 that it would agree on OVGZ benchmark criteria before January 11, once again reaffirming plans to reach government bonds' 100% rollover in 2023, as it was agreed with the International Monetary Fund.