The National Bank of Ukraine in forex auctions in December sold $119.4 million more than it bought, the NBU`s press service reports.
According to the regulator, in the past month the NBU held three auctions for foreign currency sale, having purchased $115 million.
At the same time, the central bank held another five auctions where it sold $234.4 million.
The largest volume of foreign currency sales accounts for the last three business days of the interbank foreign exchange market in 2016, December 27-29, when the National Bank sold $202.7 million.
As UNIAN reported earlier, the National Bank in the auction at the interbank foreign exchange market in November replenished its reserves by $80 million.
International reserves of Ukraine as of late November amounted to $15.271 billion, which is 14.8% higher than at the beginning of the year.
Yesterday, December 29, the NBU reported that the current level of international reserves was about $15.6 billion.
Quotes hryvnia to the U.S. dollar to the close of trading on the interbank foreign exchange market on the last day of its work in 2016 settled at UAH 27.05/27.20 to the dollar.
The weighted average exchange rate of the hryvnia on the interbank market as of 17:00 December 29 was established at the level of UAH 27.1909 to the dollar, the NBU reports.
The National Bank explained the devaluation pressure on the hryvnia exchange rate before the New Year with the excess hryvnia liquidity, lack of demand from exporters to sell foreign exchange earnings after receiving VAT refunds, and increased demand for foreign currency for payments on foreign currency loans at the end of the year.
Experts explained the current devaluation of the hryvnia to the U.S. dollar also with excess market liquidity in connection with the traditional growth of the government budget payments at the end of the year but predicted that the situation would stabilize with the onset of the New Year holidays.
Historic lows of the Ukrainian hryvnia exchange rate against the U.S. dollar was recorded in February 2015 at UAH 30.01 to the dollar.
