Net purchase of currency by population in Ukraine up to $1.03 bln in Dec - National Bank
MOSCOW. Jan 11 (Interfax) - Foreign currency purchase by the population of Ukraine exceeded currency sales by $1.26 billion in December 2023 compared to $621.8 million in November and $739.4 million in October and set a record since October 2012, Ukrainian media outlets said with a reference to the website of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
Such result in December was made possible by the cash currency segment, where its net purchase grew to $807.5 million from $375-380 million in October and November, whereas the balance of purchases and sales of non-cash foreign currency decreased to $218.6 million in comparison with the previous months.
As reported, the NBU, which has been maintaining the official exchange rate of hryvnia at $36.5686/$1 since late July 2022, switched to the controlled exchange rate flexibility on October 3. An obvious trend of the weakening of the national currency has developed on the market since late November under pressure of an increased demand. Despite the NBU's increased interventions of up to $3.55 billion, the dollar rose by 4.5%, or 1.65 hryvni, reaching 38,002 hryvni/$1 on the interbank market, while on the cash market, its growth reached 5.3%, or about 2 hryvni, approximately to $39.40/$1 in December because of the hike nearing one hryvnia in the past few days of the year.
The NBU specified that the net purchase of foreign currency on the cash market was over $54 million every day on December 27-28, while it was seldom over $40 million on the remaining days of the month.
A rise in the dollar rate on the cash market resulted in an increase of the net purchase of non-cash currency as well in the last few days of the past year and first few days of the new one, reaching $24-36 million a day compared to the average amount of $8 million in the previous days of December.
According to the NBU, overall, sales of non-cash currency by the population increased from November's $260.4 million and reached $311.7 million in December, while purchases increased from $507.5 million to $530.3 million.
Purchases grew more substantially on the cash market in December, from 1.713 billion to $2.65 billion, while sales decreased from $1.338 billion to $1.258 billion.
As reported, according to official statistics, the population's purchase of currency exceeded sales by $880.1 million, including the net purchase of currency in cash standing at $1.01 billion, overall in 2022.
The Ukrainian population's net purchase of currency reached $4.792 billion, including $3.632 billion in cash, in 2023.
Purchases of currency by bank clients on the non-cash market also increased in December, up from November's $5.85 billion to $7.06 billion, while an increase in sales was not so significant, to $4.91 billion from $4.49 billion.
As a result, the net purchase in December reached $2.15 billion, returning to October's figures after a dip of $1.36 billion in November, and the total net purchase reached $14.45 in 2023.