Hontareva says hryvnia “scared,” but it is – temporarily

Tuesday, August 12, 2014 - 11:03 (EEST) Section: Latest news

In Ukraine today, there are no macroeconomic grounds for significant fluctuations in the exchange rate.
National Bank governor Valeria Hontareva said, the press service of the regulator informs.
“The National Bank does not intend to depart from the policy of a flexible exchange rate. At the same time, now the pressure on the hryvnia exchange rate is caused by a reaction of economic agents to the military conflict in the east of the state. This is – temporarily, as the external position of the country in recent months has significantly improved, macroeconomic foundations for significant exchange rate fluctuations are absent,” the NBU governor said.
Explaining what she meant, Hontareva recalled that the current account deficit, which is the most resistant part of the balance of payments, fell to USD 1.9 billion in the first half of 2014, compared with USD 5.4 billion a year ago. In addition, the country in recent months received a significant amount of external financing from official sources, in particular, USD 500 million from the World Bank and USD 1.45 billion from the IMF are expected to come in August. Also, an inflow of foreign direct investment renewed in June.
The NBU governor also said that with a large unbalance of the interbank foreign exchange market, the National Bank will be forced to use its administrative limits, along with market-based instruments.
As reported by Ukrinform, the U.S. dollar on the interbank has crossed a mark of 13 UAH/USD, euro – 17 UAH/EUR.
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12.08.2014 11:03