Ukraine's international reserves 10% up in Sept

The international reserves of Ukraine on October 1, 2016 amounted to $15.589 billion, having increased in September by 10.5%, according to the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).

The increase in the reserves was due to the receipt of the third tranche under the EFF program from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the amount of $1.002 billion and $1 billion from eurobond placement under the guarantee of the U.S. government.

In addition, another $100.1 million was obtained from dollar-denominated government domestic loan bonds placed by the Finance Ministry.

At the same time, the National Bank spent $130.2 million on forex market interventions, while the Ministry of Finance repaid the second coupon on restructured eurobonds worth $505.4 million and $33.8 million for servicing and repaying government domestic loan bonds.

"Over the last month Ukraine's international reserves cover 3.9 months of imports and are sufficient to fulfill the commitments, current operations of the government and the National Bank," the NBU said.

According to the second review of the EFF program, the IMF unveiled this week, it is expected that by the end of 2016 Ukrainian international reserves will increase to $16.8 billion, by the end of next year to $23.7 billion, and by late 2018 to $31.2 billion.