By KYIV. March 6 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The volume of purchases of foreign currency by the population of Ukraine in February 2023 exceeded the volume of its sale by $504.8 million compared to $564.0 million in January, this figure decreased after six months of continuous growth, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has reported.
According to the information on its website, if earlier the net purchase was formed mainly in the cash market, in December it was almost equally in the cash and noncash markets, then in February, as in January mainly in the noncash market.
At the end of September last year, the increase of the limit for the purchase of noncash currency by individuals from UAH 50,000 to UAH 100,000 per month for its placement on a deposit for at least three months by the National Bank continues to stimulate such operations, although in February the volume of purchases of noncash currency decreased slightly to $433.4 million from $523.9 million in January and $450.5 million in December.
The volume of sales of noncash currency by the population decreased again last month – to $123.1 million from $153.4 million in January and $220.2 million in December.
As for cash currency, its purchase and sale decreased compared to January: purchase from $1.268 billion to $1.185 billion, and sale from $1.075 billion to $0.990 billion.
In accordance with these NBU data, the turnover in the official cash foreign exchange market in February this year amounted to 77% of the turnover in February 2022, while the volume of transactions with noncash currency was 39.5%.
As reported, in general, in 2022, the population, according to official statistics, bought $880.1 million more than it sold, including $1,010.0 million more in cash than sold.
In the cash market, the U.S. dollar is now quoted at around UAH 39/$1, which is UAH 1.15 less than a month ago. The last time the U.S. dollar was so cheap was at the end of July last year, before the devaluation of the official exchange rate by the National Bank by 25%, to UAH 36.57/$1.
