The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has said that the level of counterfeit banknotes of the national currency is low, according to monitoring of the removal of these banknotes from circulation in 2018, according to a posting on the NBU’s website.
“The situation with the removal of counterfeit national and foreign currency banknotes to Ukraine is controlled and not threatening. The system of protection of national currency is on par with systems of protection of leading currencies of the world. Last year compared to 2017, we saw even a decrease in the number and the amounts of counterfeit hryvnia banknotes by 30 percent and 41 percent, respectively,” the press service of the NBU reported, citing Director of the money circulation department of the central bank Viktor Zaivenko.
According to the report, the number of counterfeit hryvnia banknotes withdrawn from the Ukrainian banking system amounted to 0.00025 percent in 2018 of the total amount of cash in circulation (0.00036 percent in 2017). Hryvnia accounted for about 2.5 counterfeit banknotes (in 2017 – 3.6 banknotes). For comparison, in the EU countries, according to the official website of the European Central Bank, in 2018 this figure was approximately 27 counterfeit euro banknotes (in 2017 – 33 banknotes).
At the end of 2018, the number of counterfeit banknotes with denominations of Hr 500 and Hr 20 halved; Hr 50 fell by 25 percent.
At the same time, the number of seized counterfeit banknotes in denominations of Hr 200 increased by 17 percent; Hr 100 – by 13 percent. 99 percent of counterfeit hryvnia banknotes withdrawn from circulation are four denominations of banknotes: Hr 500 (46 percent of the total number of counterfeit banknotes seized and 80 percent of their total amount), Hr 100 (27 percent and 9 percent); Hr 50 (15 percent and 3 percent); and Hr 200 (11 percent and 8 percent).
Other counterfeit banknotes with denominations from Hr 1 to 20 accounted for only 1 percent.
Among counterfeit foreign currency banknotes withdrawn from circulation in 2018 were U.S. dollars (78 percent of the total number of all counterfeit foreign currency notes seized), euro (17 percent), Russian rubles (4 percent), Swiss francs and British pounds sterling (1 percent). Most often, offenders forged foreign banknotes with a denomination of $100 (97 percent of the total number of seized counterfeit U.S. dollars);50 euro and 200 euro(45 percent and 36 percent of the total number of seized counterfeit euros), 5,000 Russian rubles (78 percent of the total number of seized counterfeit Russian rubles).
