By KYIV. Dec 5 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The volume of purchases of foreign currency by the population of Ukraine in November 2023 exceeded the volume of its sales by $621.8 million, having decreased after the jump to $739.4 million after the news about the failure of the fixed exchange rate in October, a record level since the beginning of the full-scale war, reported the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
According to information on its website, the reduction in November occurred mainly in the non-cash currency segment, where its net purchase amounted to $247.1 million, while the balance of purchases and sales of cash currency remained almost at the level of October – $374.7 million.
As reported, the National Bank of Ukraine, which has maintained the official hryvnia exchange rate of UAH 36.5686/$1 since the end of July 2022, switched to a regime of managed exchange rate flexibility on October 3. However, at the end of October, the official rate even strengthened to UAH 36.2812/$1, despite the increase in the National Bank’s interventions to $3.34 billion, a record level since July 2022, and it ended November at UAH 36.3535/$1, with interventions reducing to $2.45 billion.
The dollar exchange rate on the cash market, after jumping to UAH 38.30/$1 in the first days of the regime change, strengthened to UAH 37.76/$1 by the end of October, and after another month – to UAH 37.40/$1.
According to the National Bank, the volume of sales of non-cash currency by the population in November increased to $260.4 million from $221.5 million in October, while the volume of purchases decreased from $580.8 million to $507.5 million.
On the cash market in November, purchases decreased slightly – from $1.749 billion to $1.713 billion, as well as sales – from $1.369 billion to $1.339 billion.
As reported, in general, in 2022, the population, according to official statistics, bought $880.1 million more currency than they sold, including $1.01 billion more cash currency purchased than sold.
