Ukraine's int'l reserves rose 4% to $37.311 bln in May
MOSCOW. June 6 (Interfax) - Ukraine's international reserves rose 4% or $41.358 billion during May to a new 11-year high of $37.311 billion, Ukrainian media quoted the National Bank of Ukraine as saying in a statement.
"International reserves increased thanks to sustainable and regular inflows from international partners, which exceeded the NBU's net FX sales, and Ukraine's FX debt repayments," the regulator said.
Net international reserves rose $1.534 billion or 6.4% to $25.39 billion.
The government's FX accounts with the NBU received a total of $4.323 billion, including $1.616 billion of macrofinancial assistance from the EU, $1.25 billion from the United States through the World Bank's trust fund, $1.074 billion from the placement of FX domestic government debt securities and $383 million from the World Bank.
The government spent $840 million on servicing and repaying FX public debt, including $740 million in repayments on FX domestic government debt securities and $30 million to repay the debt to the World Bank and $200 million to the International Monetary Fund.
The NBU sold $1.96 billion in the FX market and bought $60 billion to replenish international reserves in May. The NBU's net FX sales thereby increased to $1.9 billion in May, from $1.37 billion in April.
"This increase came as the seasonal factor of an increase in FX sales by farmers for the sowing campaign wearing off, as well as difficulties in exports to neighboring countries and through the grain corridor. Meanwhile, inflows from international partners were much larger than the net FX sales by the NBU to cover the gap between supply and demand on the Ukrainian FX market," the NBU said.
The value of financial instruments decreased by $26.8 million in May due to revaluation.
"International reserves now cover 4.9 months of future imports," the NBU said.
The NBU says on its website that the breakdown of reserves by currencies as of June 1 was $32.1 billion in U.S. dollars, and the equivalent of $2.22 billion in euros, $1.7 billion gold, $350 million each of pounds sterling and yen and $560 million yuan.