NBU net interventions increased by 18% last week

Last week, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) increased the volume of currency sales on the interbank market by $98.4 million, which is 18%, reaching $643.6 million, according to data published on the regulator's website.

According to the information, the Central Bank has not purchased currency over the past two weeks.

Last week, the National Bank purchased the largest amount of currency since the beginning of March, but this is still lower than in February of this year, and is approximately equal to the volume of currency purchases for the same week in March last year.

The data that the regulator managed to publish for this period show that the difference between the volume of currency purchases by the population and its sale last week decreased from $26.89 million on Monday to $20.24 million on Thursday.

Over the week, the official hryvnia exchange rate fell by 2 kopecks to 41.5277 UAH/$1.

Similar changes occurred on the cash market, with a narrow spread of 41.46–41.56 UAH/$1.

“Since the beginning of March, significant changes in the dollar exchange rate dynamics have been observed on the Ukrainian currency market. If in February the dollar gradually strengthened, then at the beginning of March it began to decline with subsequent slow recovery of value after March 10,” analysts from the currency market operator KYT Group comment on the current situation on the market in their March review.

In their opinion, the Ukrainian cash currency market was affected by a decrease in demand for the dollar after a significant import of cash currency in February: according to the NBU, $1.316 billion in cash dollars and the equivalent of $450 million in euros were imported into Ukraine.

The NBU's interventions help smooth out exchange rate volatility and maintain a stable market situation, but the growth of budget expenditures in March traditionally creates additional demand for currency, which may affect the adjustment of the hryvnia exchange rate, KYT Group experts added. They expect that in the short term, over the next 1-3 weeks, the dollar exchange rate will likely remain within the range of 41.30-42.30 UAH/$1.

As reported earlier, the NBU's net interventions in February decreased to $3 billion from $3.75 billion in January.

The volume of currency purchases by Ukrainians in February 2025 exceeded the volume of its sales by $950 million, which is also lower than the figure of $1.48 billion in January of this year.

According to preliminary data, Ukraine's international reserves as of March 1, 2025 amounted to $40.15 billion, which is 6.7%, or $2.86 billion, less than a month earlier.

The Cabinet of Ministers set the average annual official exchange rate of the hryvnia to the US dollar at 45 UAH/$1 in the state budget for 2025.