You're reading: Ukraine’s forex reserves 21.6 percent up in August

Ukraine's forex reserves grew by $2.24 billion or 21.6 percent, to $12.62 billion, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has said on its website.

The NBU said that the level of reserves returned to the level of October 2014.

NBU said that reserves mainly expanded thanks to receiving the $1.65 billion second tranche of the EFF program from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), $510 million from the World Bank and the European Commission and $400 million from swap transactions and conversion of Chinese yuans.

“In August the NBU also continued buying foreign currency on the interbank currency market. Net purchase of currency by the regulator totaled $9.2 million,” reads the report.

The central bank said that $250 million was sent to repay and service state debt last month.

The EFF projects that Ukraine’s gross international reserves will grow to $18.3 billion by the end of the current year and to $22.3 billion next year, which will cover 3.7 and 4.2 months of imports respectively. In 2017, 2018, and 2019, the reserves are expected to grow to $28.5 billion, $35.2 billion and $38.4 billion respectively, with their size being fixed at around 5.4 months of imports.

On Aug. 4, NBU Governor Valeriya Gontareva announced her forecast for the international reserves, under which they will amount to “almost $18 billion” by the end of 2015.