While opening his meeting with the central bank management and other bankers, Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko expressed concern over the rampant demand for foreign currency on the interbank forex market. «The average demand was USD 360 million during the year. Yesterday it was USD 1.8 billion,» he said.
In this connection the President is also anxious about excessive liquidity of the banking system.
«UAH 35 billion is NBU refunding, UAH 15.7 billion is extra liquidity of the banking system. Where does this money go? To the forex market rather than in support of economy,» he emphasized.
In the President’s opinion, NBU transactions to back banks’ liquidity must be weighted and moderate to prevent excessive pressure on the hryvnia rate.
As Ukrainian News reported, on Wednesday the NBU sold on interbank about USD 100 million at 5.98 UAH/USD. Before its appearance in the market, the quotations fluctuated within 6.1500-6.3000 UAH/USD.
Since the beginning of the year, the hryvnia rate on interbank has fallen 18.4% from 5.05 UAH/USD.
