This year, the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine does not expect for any significant hryvnia rate expectations and states that the instruments of the National Bank of Ukraine, which can be used for smoothing possible rate fluctuations, are sufficient, First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Economy Stepan Kubiv said, Finance.ua reports.
According to him, in January, the plummeting of the rate became the result of seasonal factors. “It is the traditional phenomenon for the beginning of the year: the business activities decline, the export of agricultural products, which is the source of the foreign currency supply to Ukraine, decreases. However, the National Bank smoothed excessive fluctuations of the hryvnia rate. And it has the sufficient volume of international reserves for further smoothing of the volatility of the national currency rate”, Kubiv said.
As reported, the government forecast for 2017 is based on the fact that the GDP growth will be not less than 3% with the budget deficit of 3%, inflation of 8.1% and the average hryvnia rate of 27.2 UAH per dollar. The expert forecast is much more pessimistic.
According to financial experts, the average annual rate will be 28 UAH per dollar. In January, the National Bank sold USD 235.8 mln to the banks and purchased USD 157.8 mln. In January, the international reserves of Ukraine decreased by 0.6% - to USD 15.445 bln as of February 1, 2017.
