You're reading: NBU: Ukraine’s balance of payments deficit hits $944 million in two months

The deficit of Ukraine's balance of payments in January-February 2012 came to $944 million compared to a $1.624 billion surplus for the same period of 2011, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) said in a statement posted on its Web site.

The deficit of Ukraine’s balance of payments in February 2012 alone came to $55 million compared to a surplus of $1.364 billion in the same period of 2011.

According to the statement, the deficit of the current account reached $857 million in January-February 2012, 8% down from $931 million in the same period of 2011. The deficit of the current account in February 2012 alone decreased by 5.2% from $1.34 billion in February 2011, to $1.27 billion.

"The total deficit of the current account over the past 12 months remained relatively stable for the fourth month, staying at 5.4% of GDP or $8.9 billion in absolute terms in February," the statement said.

The deficit of the capital account and the financial account in January-February 2012 came to $87 million, whereas there was a surplus of $2.555 billion for the same period of 2011. February 2012 alone saw a financial account surplus of $1.215 billion, which was 2.2 times down from $2.704 billion posted over the same period of 2011.

The NBU said that the improvement in the financial account in February 2012 compared to January 2012 had been the result of the inflow of foreign direct investment (FDIs) and trade loans. "There was a surplus of trade loans according to our estimates ($1.1 billion), while in January there was a deficit (roughly the same level). Net FDIs increased to $832 million (from $481 million in January). Total FDIs inflow in January-February 2012 grew by 1.8 times year-over-year," the statement said.

The NBU said that the annual growth of commodity exports in February 2012 (by 5.5%) remained higher than the same indicator of commodity imports (by 4.1%). "The slowdown of export growth (from 14.4% in January 2012) is connected mainly with temporary factors, namely logistics problems," the NBU said.