Ukraine's NBU lowers hryvnia exchange rate to $36.74

MOSCOW. Dec 11 (Interfax) - The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) on Friday lowered the official hryvnia exchange rate by almost 0.2% to its all-time low of 36.7424 UAH/$1, though its net sales of dollars dropped to $544.0 million from $737.9 million a week earlier.

The NBU forex purchases remain meager at $2.0 million, Ukrainian media reported, citing the NBU's website.

Overall, the hryvnia fell by almost 1.1% on the interbank market over the past week, and by 2% over the past two weeks. At the same time, the hryvnia is now only 0.5% cheaper than the fixed exchange rate of 36.5686 UAH/$1, which the NBU has kept since late July 2022 until October 3 this year.

Unlike the interbank market, the situation on the cash market was more stable this week, and the exchange rate remained at around UAH 37.38/$1.

Hence, the NBU's lifting of restrictions for banks and financial companies to sell cash foreign currency to individuals on December 1 has resulted in a marked narrowing of the spread between the rates on the interbank market and at the exchange offices.

As reported, the NBU's net sales fell to $2.46 billion in November from $3.34 billion in October and $2.69 billion in September. However, the decline in external funding to $2.04 billion resulted in a drop in international reserves for the fourth consecutive month by 0.5%, or by $187.8 million, to $38,785.2 billion.

In total, the NBU has purchased $216.7 million on the market, while it has sold $26,095.0 billion since the beginning of this year.