Dollar slightly cheaper, euro notably higher: NBU rates for August 18

For Tuesday, August 18, the National Bank set the following official rates: - US dollar – 44.6938 UAH (down 0.0123 UAH from the official rate for Monday, August 17); - euro – 51.8082 UAH (up 0.1002 UAH from the official rate for Monday, August 17).

The rates were set at 4:00 PM on August 17 and reflect the following trends:

1. Immediately after trading started on the interbank foreign exchange market, the National Bank entered. It sold about 100 million dollars, satisfying the submitted purchase requests. Thanks to the regulator's intervention, the first wave of demand was brought down, and until 12:00 trading continued in a narrow range of 44.65–44.70 UAH on the "bid" position. At 12:00, the average transaction price was 44.6653 UAH – 8 kopecks lower than last Friday. After 12 o'clock, quotations went up; this time the National Bank, although selling currency to importers, no longer hindered the dollar rate growth, so it continued until the end of the trading session. Nevertheless, the average transaction price, though it increased compared to 12:00, was lower than by the end of trading last Friday, so the National Bank lowered the official rate for Tuesday by 1.2 kopecks.

2. The euro on the international FOREX market rose today from 1.15604 to 1.16141 dollars amid continued dollar selling against other major world currencies. At the time of fixing, the euro was sold at 1.15918 – 25.6 pips higher than last Friday (1.15662 dollars). Therefore, the NBU raised the official euro rate by 10 kopecks.

On the cash market, minor price fluctuations continue depending on the region: in Kyiv and Kharkiv, the dollar rose by 1–2 kopecks over the day, in Odesa – immediately by 5 kopecks, in Lviv – fell by 1 kopeck. In Dnipro, the price did not change over the day. The cash market continues to demonstrate stability. According to analysts, it will last at least until Independence Day, and possibly longer.