The rate of the Ukrainian hryvnia is gradually decreasing, showing a drop of 10 kopecks daily. Although the rate of decline of the national currency is much lower than that of the Russian ruble, such dynamics cause concern among experts and citizens.
The National Bank of Ukraine allows the non-cash rate of the dollar to actively grow for the third day in a row. No sooner had he raised his official hryvnia/dollar exchange rate to a new maximum of 41.5035 UAH/$ yesterday than today this record was broken again and for tomorrow, November 28, the official rate is set at 41.6010 UAH/$.
With a step of 10 kopecks and above, devaluation of the official exchange rate is recorded infrequently, and this week is just like this:
– November 25 – UAH 41.3193/$;
– November 26 – UAH 41.4387/$;
– November 27 – UAH 41.5035/$;
– November 28 – UAH 41.6010/$.
Usually, after a noticeable increase in the price of the dollar, the NBU rolled it back, followed the exchange rate movement in two directions, which is not happening now. The cashless market is only moving up.
On Tuesday, the interbank closed at 41.595 UAH/$, and today, November 27, it started with a deal at 41.55 UAH/$. However, the slight strengthening of the hryvnia turned out to be fleeting, and in the first half hour the quotation jumped to UAH 41.60/$, and then to UAH 41.6215/$. At noon, the dollar was sold at 41.64, and many transactions were made at this price. After lunch, the interbank briefly retreated to 41.6375, but before the close of trading, it was still fixed at 41.64 UAH/$.
If yesterday the devaluation of the hryvnia took place at the average volume of trades, now it has increased noticeably, immediately by 38% - from $200.2 million to $275.6 million. Treasurers believe that the National Bank today sold more than $200 million from its gold and currency reserves.
"We see a real increase in demand for the dollar. Both for purely calendar reasons (on the eve of Thanksgiving in the USA, where tomorrow will be a day off and banks will be closed), and for psychological reasons. Our companies see the appreciation of the currency and want to purchase it as a reserve as soon as possible, to make overpayments under import contracts. At the same time, exporters who have noticed the devaluation are not in a hurry to part with their currency earnings - they keep the dollar little by little in order to sell it later and more profitably. The market sensed the hryvnia devaluation trend, which was predicted at the end of 2024. They were especially convinced of it after the statement of the Cabinet of Ministers about receiving $4.8 billion from the World Bank, it is clear that the government will want to convert it at a more favorable rate," the director of the treasury of one of the system banks told "Strane".
On the black market, today's day began with the purchase/sale of the dollar in the range of 41.50-41.70 UAH/$, and ended at 41.7250-41.7830 UAH/$.
At banks, cash exchange rates at cash desks exceeded the 42nd mark. The maximum sale price of the dollar reached UAH 42.05/$, it was set by MetaBank, and two more structures (TASkombank and Abanka) had UAH 42.0/$. Average buying/selling rates were UAH 41.65-41.75/$. State-owned Privatbank and Oschadbank bought/sold American currency at UAH 41.20-41.80/$ and UAH 41.35-41.85/$, respectively.
The maximum card rates for selling the dollar at banks were 42.17 UAH/$ and 42.55 UAH/$, set by Raiffeisen Bank and Acordbank, respectively. The average purchase/sale here was within 41.29-41.82 UAH/$.
Financiers continue to talk about stable demand for foreign currency from the population. Today, it was confirmed by a recent report of the National Bank on the amount of cash dollars brought in by banks to their cash registers: an increase of 29% in October (up to $1.68 billion) and 81.4% (up to $12.9 billion) in 9 months of 2024 was recorded , if compared with the similar period of 2023 ($7.1 billion), and immediately 4.1 times more than the pre-war 2021 ($3.2 billion).
