KYIV, July 13 – Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko called the 4.3 percent devaluation of the hryvna since the start of the year a positive trend while reporting to parliament Friday on his government”s performance during the first six months of this year.
Yushchenko said that exchange-rate stability and price stability were generally preserved during the first half of the year despite the lack of foreign loans.
In late May, President Leonid Kuchma criticized the National Bank of Ukraine for the slow hryvna devaluation.
NBU Chairman Volodymyr Stelmakh said that he did not consider it appropriate to artificially lower the value of the hryvna in order to boost the country”s balance of trade. He stressed that artificial interference on the market was undesirable under the current policy of floating exchange rate, adopted at the start of this year.
The hryvna”s exchange rate has remained practically unchanged on the interbank currency market since the start of June, remaining within the range of Hr 5.45-Hr 5.44 per dollar.
The hryvna has fallen 4.6 percent from Hr 5.20 per dollar since the start of this year. Most of the devaluation occurred in January.
The Cabinet of Ministers forecasts that the hryvna”s average exchange rate will be Hr 5.78 to the dollar this year, based on the assumption that hryvna will fall by 15.6 percent, to Hr 6.02 per dollar during the entire year.
