The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) intends to include the Chinese yuan among its forex reserves, the newspaper Kommersant Ukrainy reported, quoting a source at the NBU.
"We will only hold around $2.5 billion in yuan so far [around 7% of reserves as of the start of November] but it will definitely be there," the source said.
According to the source, representatives of the NBU have reached an agreement with the People’s Bank of China for holding swaps in national currencies.
The Chinese authorities are ready to implement swaps for total trade between the two countries but the NBU has agreed to yuan-based transfers for only one third of payments.
"Even though China doesn’t especially need the hryvnia, it is interested in expanded the zone of influence of its currency to other countries whereas we are interested in differentiating our reserves. We will be the 12th country, which will have swaps in China," the NBU representative said.
The newspaper also quoted a NBU spokesperson as saying that around 45% of the bank’s reserves are in U.S. dollars, euro – 34% and monetary gold – 4.6%.
It was earlier reported that Ukraine’s international reserves decreased in October 2011 by 2.3%, or by $788 million, to $34.16 billion.
Since the start of the year, the NBU’s reserves have gone down by 1.2%, or by $414.1 million. Ukraine’s international reserves came to $34.576 billion on Jan. 1.
