In December, the National Bank set a historic record for dollar expenditure from state reserves

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has set a record for the amount of U.S. dollars sold from its foreign exchange reserves.

According to a new report by the regulator, in December 2024, it injected $5.3 billion into the interbank market to stabilize the hryvnia.

This amount is not only the highest since the onset of the large-scale war — the previous peak was $3.99 billion in June 2022 — but also the largest recorded in the history of NBU’s public reports, which have been updated monthly since early 2012. Before the full-scale invasion, the NBU’s peak foreign currency sales occurred during the financial crisis in October 2014, amounting to $3.2 billion per month. The current figure is 1.7 times higher.

As of November 2024, NBU’s foreign exchange reserves stood at $39.9 billion. Officials had promised to significantly increase these reserves by year-end, supported by international aid in the form of grants and loans. However, few anticipated the rapid pace of currency reserve depletion by the central bank. Even NBU leadership made reassurances.

During a press conference on December 12, 2024, Yuriy Heletiy, the NBU’s Deputy Governor for Monetary Policy, assured that the situation in the currency market was under control and that significant foreign currency sales from reserves were not anticipated. He stated that the NBU planned to keep December sales between $3.5–4 billion.

This forecast was not realized. Despite the large intervention, the official hryvnia-to-dollar exchange rate in December depreciated from 41.6 UAH/$ to 42.04 UAH/$.