NBU sells $377M to smooth out excessive fluctuations on foreign exchange market

Director of the NBU’s Open Markets Department Oleksiy Lupin said in an interview with HB Business, Ukrinform reports.

According to Lupin, at the end of last week, everyone noticed the deterioration of information environment due to negative news related to the escalation of the military conflict. Therefore, the foreign exchange market reacted, with demand outpacing supply on Friday and the NBU selling $50 million to smooth out excessive fluctuations.

Lupin noted that because this wave of news began in the last days of the week, the demand in the cash segment of the market grew over the weekend, which led to a significant growth of the dollar exchange rate at the start of trading on Monday.

"In the first hour of trading [February 14] this excess demand was met and the exchange rate was adjusted slightly. Over the course of the day, we smoothed out excessive market fluctuations and sold a total of $377 million, which helped offset increased demand," said Lupin.

He assured that the situation in the foreign exchange market is under control. A similar situation occurred in January for similar reasons, and the January experience showed greater resilience to such shocks in both the foreign exchange market and the economy as a whole.

As Ukrinform reported, the National Bank purchased $253.2 million and sold $50 million on the interbank foreign exchange market last week.

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