In December 2024, the National Bank of Ukraine, as part of currency interventions, sold $5.3 billion on the market, but bought only $430 thousand.
This volume of currency sales became an all-time absolute record, exceeding both the previous months of a full-scale invasion and previous historical peaks during the coronavirus crisis ($2.4 billion in March 2020) and the Russian invasion in eastern Ukraine ($3.2 billion in October 2014), reported the Center for Economic Strategy.
Currency interventions allow the NBU to ensure relative exchange rate stability: the hryvnia is devaluing, but at a moderate pace.
In December, the main reason for large sales of foreign currency was the record monthly expenses of the general fund of the State Budget – UAH 492 billion. Previous December 2023, the main increase in spending was on the purchase of weapons and ammunition, which requires more imports and foreign exchange expenditures. The situation was probably similar this December.
December was also a month of record foreign aid receipts ($9.2 billion). Thanks to this, we can expect that gold and foreign exchange reserves, which amounted to $39.9 billion in November, will remain at a sufficient level.
Source: Racurs
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