Arbuzov: Gold and foreign-currency reserves may grow by year-end

The head of the National bank of Ukraine Serhiy Arbuzov contradicts IMF with Reserves Forecast, he said in the interview with Bloomberg.

He mentioned that Ukraine’s gold and foreign-currency reserves should “positive economic tendencies persist”.

Arbuzov said that while reserves shrank 4.7 percent to $29.3 billion in June, the lowest level in two years, the drop was mainly because the former Soviet republic repaid $600 million of Eurobonds and $1.1 billion loaned to it by Russia’s VTB Group.

 

“The recent decline in reserves was caused by foreign-debt repayments, not by Ukraine’s economic situation worsening,” Arbuzov explained.

In addition, he said that the central bank allowed lenders to include 10 percent of the nominal value of domestic foreign-currency bonds issued by the government in their required reserves starting June 30, freeing up about 2 billion hryvnia for banks to channel into credit.