Ukraine’s intl reserves grow by 9.7% in Dec – National Bank

Ukraine's international reserves increased by $3.863 billion, or 9.7%, in December, reaching $43.788 billion as of January 1, 2025, according to preliminary data from the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).

"In December 2024, they increased by 9.7% compared to November thanks to FX inflows from international partners, which exceeded the NBU's net FX sales and Ukraine's FX debt repayments," the NBU reported on its website on Tuesday.

Over the past year, international reserves rose by $3.273 billion, or 8.1%.

The NBU noted that net international reserves increased by $3.153 billion, or 12.2%, in December alone, and by $0.712 billion, or 2.5%, over the whole of 2024, reaching $29.094 billion.

At the beginning of the year, the reserves' composition was as follows: 67.1% in securities, 27.6% in cash, correspondent accounts, and deposits, and 5.3% in monetary gold. A year earlier, the respective shares were 69.7%, 25.9%, and 4.4%.

In December, Ukraine received a record $9.461 billion in foreign currency inflows to government accounts at the NBU, including $4.411 billion in macro-financial assistance from the EU, $3.935 billion from the World Bank (via DPL mechanisms funded by the United States, Japan, and the UK), and $1.089 billion from the IMF.

At the same time, $0.133 billion was paid for servicing and repaying the public foreign currency debt, and $0.252 billion was paid to the IMF.

Additionally, the NBU sold a record $5.309 billion on the foreign exchange market while purchasing only $0.4 million for reserves.

"The NBU thus made $5.3085 billion in net FX sales in December, almost two times the level of November. The last month's increase in the central bank's interventions to sell foreign currency was primarily due to the traditional seasonal factor of higher budgetary spending and a pickup in business operations at the end of the year," the central bank explained.

The NBU also reported that the revaluation of financial instruments added $92 million to reserves in December.

"International reserves are now covering 5.5 months of future imports," the press release stated.

Over the entire year, Ukraine received approximately $42 billion in global financial assistance. The largest contributions came from the EU ($17.5 billion), the United States ($6.8 billion), the World Bank ($6.1 billion), the IMF ($5.3 billion), Japan ($4.3 billion), and Canada ($1.8 billion). Additionally, the country raised over $3.5 billion through foreign currency-denominated government bonds.

According to the NBU, this, combined with international aid, allowed Ukraine to offset its foreign currency public debt servicing and repayment ($6.7 billion), IMF payments ($3.4 billion), and the NBU's net foreign currency sales ($34.8 billion). These interventions were aimed at addressing structural deficits in the foreign exchange market and smoothing excessive exchange rate fluctuations under managed flexibility. The reserves were also bolstered to a sufficient level to maintain exchange rate stability going forward.

As previously reported, the NBU revised its forecast for international reserves at the end of 2024-2026 upward by $2.4-3.7 billion in late October. According to its updated projections, reserves were expected to grow to $43.6 billion by the end of 2024 but decrease to $41 billion in 2025.