The Ukrainian hryvnia sharply lost its value on the foreign exchange market, and the rate of the US dollar on the interbank market exceeded the 40 hryvnia mark. The cash rate of the dollar reached UAH 40.40/$, and the card rate is moving up to UAH 41/$.
Today, May 23, a new exchange rate maximum was set at the currency interbank - for the first time in the history of the hryvnia, the exchange rate exceeded the 40th level. Actual transactions on the Bloomberg platform (main) were fixed at the level of UAH 40.01/$, which had not happened before.
Last week ended at 39.52 hryvnias/$ on the interbank, and this week started at 39.67 hryvnias/$.
Today's trading on Bloomberg started quite calmly and even sluggishly - at 39.84 UAH/$, by noon a very small volume of trading was recorded - about $50 million. Everything changed before the lunch break, when the exchange rate reached 40 UAH/$ for the first time. After that, exporters and speculators became more active, the trading volume doubled and reached $161.2 million. 20 minutes before the closing of the deal, the price was 40.01 UAH/$, and the official closing of the market was slightly lower - at 39.98 UAH/$.
At the end of the day, the National Bank set its official exchange rate at UAH 39.92/$ (as of May 23), which is a new historical maximum. The national bank rate has never been so high.
Previously, the National Bank explained exchange rate jumps by large sales of dollars from its gold and foreign exchange reserves. Treasurers even developed a rule: the more the NBU sells currency, the higher the exchange rate will be. It was said that this rule is based on a secret formula, according to which the regulator forms the value of the dollar on an interbank basis every day. However, this was not observed today.
National Bank sales on Bloomberg were estimated at $85-88 million from the total volume of $161.2 million, i.e. 53-55% of the market. Therefore, the bankers have another version of what is happening - that the NBU is trying to lure exporters to the interbank with a high exchange rate, and at the same time is trying to manually raise the dollar to the indicators laid down in the state budget.
"Everyone remembers that the rate of 40.7 hryvnias/$ is set for the state budget of 2024, and tax revenues, which are constantly lacking, depend on its implementation. This is what the National Bank is constantly criticized for - for not fulfilling the course by which the budget was calculated, and now the problem is particularly acute. After all, the budget deficit has increased again, and the Ministry of Finance said the other day that it lacks approximately $5 billion in 2024. Now it is clear that some part of this deficit will be covered by the devaluation of the hryvnia, which we are currently observing. It will be a boon for the government. And for the NBU, too - because the higher the dollar exchange rate, the greater the motivation for exporters to return foreign exchange earnings to Ukraine. Now more dollars are used for agricultural work, and the rise in the price of the dollar will motivate farmers to sell currency even more," the chairman of the board of one of the banks explained the situation to "Strane".
Following the interbank, the dollar rose in price today and on the black market. The day began with currency sales at UAH 40.09/$, and ended at UAH 40.33/$. The purchase price rose from UAH 39.04/$ to UAH 39.5/$.
In the cash desks of the banks, the maximum selling rate of the cash dollar reached UAH 40.40/$, this price tag was set by the state-owned Sens Bank and four other structures - A-Bank, Acordbank, MetaBank and Crystalbank. The average cost is 40.21 UAH/$, and the average working range is from 40.05 UAH/$ to 40.35 UAH/$. The purchase of American currency was in a wide range - 39.15-40.10 UAH/$.
The card dollar is already moving up to UAH 41/$. Today, bank card exchange rates ranged from UAH 39.65/$ (Ukrsibbank) to UAH 40.85/$ (Acordbank) for sales and in the range of UAH 38.86-40.04/$ for purchases.
The average price of the dollar when purchased by individuals on current accounts (with the right of instant withdrawal) up to UAH 50,000 per month was UAH 40.08/$. The minimum price here was UAH 39.97/$ (Motor Bank), and the maximum was UAH 40.95/$ (Avangard Bank).
