In just one week, the National Bank of Ukraine sold over $1 billion to support the hryvnia.

The demand for currency remained strong at the beginning of 2025. The National Bank decided to lower the dollar exchange rate, despite a significant structural currency deficit.

This was reported by RBK-Ukraine citing data from NBU.

During the week of January 13-17, 2025, the NBU sold $1.015 billion in the interbank foreign exchange market.

This figure is slightly lower than the previous week’s total of $1.039 billion.

Currency Demand

The demand for currency surged sharply in December, with the NBU selling $5.284 billion in the interbank foreign exchange market. This marks the highest monthly volume in history.

In total, for the year 2024, the NBU sold $34.822 billion on the interbank market. However, the volume of international aid to Ukraine in 2024 amounted to $41.7 billion, which overshadowed the interventions in the interbank market.

Additionally, at the beginning of the year, Ukraine received 3 billion euros from the EU from frozen Russian assets.

Dollar Exchange Rate

It is worth noting that the dollar exchange rate slightly decreased over the past week, both in the interbank and cash markets. As a result, the official NBU exchange rate fell from a historic high (42.28 UAH/USD on January 13) to 42.12 UAH/USD on January 20. In the cash market, the rate stands at around 42.60 UAH/USD.

NBU Commentary

As noted in a column for RBK-Ukraine by Vladimir Lepushinsky, the Director of the Monetary Policy and Economic Analysis Department at the NBU, the NBU has sufficient resources to maintain the stability of the currency market.

According to him, the volume of international reserves reached a record level at the end of 2024, exceeding $43.7 billion. Reserves will continue to be replenished with international aid, the uncertainty regarding which has significantly decreased for 2025.

Lepushinsky stated that fluctuations in the dollar exchange rate will be moderate.

According to him,