NBU sells record high of $270 mln in interbank market on Tuesday

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) sold $270 million in the interbank foreign exchange market on Tuesday, responding to the high demand for currency, which is linked to the worsening of mood of financial market players over the spread of coronavirus COVID-19 and the shocking drop in the prices of crude oil in recent days, the regulator has reported on its Facebook page.

"Almost the entire amount was sold in the morning [as of 13:00 the NBU had sold $250 million], and after lunch the situation on the foreign exchange market was relatively calm and did not require significant intervention from the NBU," the National Bank said.

According to the report, there are no fundamental factors for a significant deterioration of the situation in the country. "Ukraine continues increasing deliveries of goods abroad by major export items, at the same time we are not oil exporters, therefore lowering the price of this product gives more likelihood to save a lot on energy imports," the regulator said.

In addition, over the past month, the portfolio of government bonds of nonresidents did not change significantly and fluctuated within UAH 125-129 billion, which indicates the absence of a panic withdrawal of investments, the National Bank added.

As reported, in general, since the beginning of the year, the regulator bought $1.232 billion on the interbank market, sold $872.2 million, in particular, last week the volume of foreign currency purchases amounted to $150 million, sales reached $307.2 million.

According to the central bank, in the cash market, the supply of currency also prevailed over demand: as of the beginning of the week, the population had sold almost $500 million more currency than it had bought.

Source: www.en.interfax.com.ua