Ukraine’s international reserves in 2016 increased by 17% and as of January 1, 2017, according to preliminary data, totaled $15.539 billion, according to the website of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
The central bank said the growth of reserves in December 2016 as 1.8%.
“The increase in reserves in December provided the revenues of $607.9 million coming to the government’s account, including $550.4 million as a result of placement of U.S. dollar-denominated government domestic loan bonds and $55.1 million from the European Commission,” the NBU said.
At the same time, $140.9 million was spent on payments to service and repay the public debt in foreign currency, including $119.8 million for repayment and servicing U.S. dollar-denominated government bonds.
In addition, volatility in the interbank foreign exchange market increased at the end of December. Accordingly, only during the last week the NBU held three auctions to sell foreign currency, during which satisfied applications for a total of $202.7 million.
In general, in December the NBU bought $115 million at auctions and sold $234.4 million.
In absolute terms, Ukraine’s international reserves in 2016 rose by $2.2 billion.
