KYIV, Nov. 27 – The National Bank of Ukraine has forecast that its gross gold and currency reserves will stand at $1.15 billion by the end of this year, Serhy Yaremenko, director of the NBU’s Currency Regulation Department said Monday, citing the bank’s own analysis.
The NBU’s analysis is based on the assumption that neither the bank nor the government will receive any new foreign credits by the end of this year.
If the forecast bears out, the NBU’s gross gold and currency reserves will decline by $62 million from $1.212 billion at the beginning of 2000.
Liquid reserves will be $1.032 billion by year’s end, a decline of $51 million from $1.174 billion.
As of November 16, the NBU’s gold and currency reserves were $1.172 billion; liquid reserves – $1.076 billion.
The NBU’s currency reserves have fluctuated between $1-1.3 billion over the entire year.
The National Bank spends the reserves primarily to settle debts to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. It replenishes them mainly by purchasing currency on the domestic interbank currency market.
This market has experienced a surplus of dollars since the start of the year, which is related to the de-dollarization of the economy and the arrival of foreign investors at privatized state enterprises.
