The National Bank’s reserves decreased by $1B and total $28.86B.

The NBU reports that reserves decreased by 3.5%, or $1.06B, in February due to the sale of foreign currency to cover the difference between supply and demand in the foreign exchange market. In February, the regulator sold $2.48B and bought back only $27.7M. Therefore, net sales amounted to $2.45B, $609M less than in January. As the NBU explains, this was achieved by lowering pressure from additional budget expenditures at the end of 2022 and stabilizing exchange rate expectations. At the same time, the government’s foreign currency accounts at the NBU received $2.4B in February. In particular, $2.07B came from the World Bank and $330.4M from the placement of government bonds. But the government paid $570.4M in foreign currency for service and repayment of the national debt. Also, because of the revaluation of financial instruments, their value decreased by $130.7M.