OREANDA-NEWS. February 16, 2012. In January 2012, the foreign exchange earnings from non-residents continued to exceed payments to non-residents. At the same time, January saw a seasonal reduction in the volume of foreign exchange transactions. Thus, the average daily supply and demand for foreign exchange in terms of cashless transactions fell by 22.0 % and 18.7 % respectively, as compared with December 2011. The average daily supply and demand for foreign exchange in the cash segment of the market declined by 9.5 % and 12.6 % respectively.

The National Bank of Ukraine intervened in January by both purchasing and selling foreign exchange. The foreign exchange interventions showed a negative balance of USD 893.5 million (in the equivalent). The National Bank of Ukraine backed the payments made by the National Joint-Stock Company “Naftogaz of Ukraine” under its external contracts, which ensured timely payments for natural gas imported in December with the simultaneous maintenance of the projected hryvnia exchange rate dynamics.

In January 2012, international reserves declined by 1.35 % to USD 31.4 billion (in the equivalent), being sufficient being sufficient to finance future imports of goods and services for 3.5 months.

From the beginning of January, the market exchange rate of the hryvnia against the US dollar on cashless transactions declined by 0.01 % to UAH 8.0295 per USD 1, whereas that on cash transactions on the sale of the US dollar firmed by 0.1 % to UAH 8.058 per USD 1.

The official UAH/USD exchange rate has remained almost unchanged (UAH 7.9897 per USD 1) over this period. The hryvnia has depreciated against the euro and Russian ruble by 1.71 % (to UAH 10.4745 per EUR1) and by 5.45 % (to UAH 2.6312 per RUR 10) respectively.