OREANDA-NEWS. Preliminary data suggests that as of 1 October 2016, Ukraine's international reserves amounted to the equivalent of  USD 15.589 billion. In September, international reserves  increased by 10% thanks to the successful completion of the second review under the IMF's Extended Fund Facility Arrangement. Overall, international reserves have expanded by 22% over the past 12 months. 

September’s increase in reserves was due to: 
• the disbursement by the IMF of the third loan tranche of USD 1.002 billion;  
• the disbursement of related official financing, namely USD 1 billion in proceeds raised by the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine from the placement of U.S.-guaranteed euro bonds.  

USD 100.1 million in proceeds raised by the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine from the placement of domestic sovereign bonds denominated in foreign currency.  At the same time, funds from international reserves were used for: • the NBU’s interventions in the interbank FX market. In order to smooth excessive exchange rate volatility, the NBU performed FX sales in the first three weeks of September.

In the second half of the month, the NBU resumed FX purchases to mop out excessive FX supply in the interbank market.  As a result,   the NBU's net FX sales in the interbank market amounted to USD 130.2 million in September.      

In September, Ukraine paid back USD 580.3 million, including USD 505.4 million  in  interest payments on sovereign Eurobonds, and USD 33.8 million in principal and interest payments on domestic sovereign bonds. Currently, the amount of Ukraine’s international reserves is sufficient to cover 3.9 months of future imports and enable the Government and the NBU to settle their foreign debt obligations and current operations.