Hryvnia strengthens ahead of NBU rate decision

For Thursday, September 17, the National Bank set the following official rates: - US dollar – 44.6021 UAH (-0.0369 UAH to the official rate for Wednesday, September 16); - euro – 51.4490 UAH (-0.064 UAH to the official rate for Wednesday, September 16)

The rates were set at 16:00 on September 16 and reflect the following trends:

1. On the interbank foreign exchange market in the first half of the trading session, low activity trading was observed similar to Tuesday, but in a lower range 44.62-44.66 UAH. The average price of transactions by 12:00 was 44.6318 - 3.7 kopecks lower than on Tuesday. After 13:00, the National Bank increased the volume of its interventions, as a result, quotes dropped to 44.57 UAH on the "bid" position. The average price by the end of the trading session decreased by another 3 kopecks. Therefore, the NBU lowered the official dollar rate for Thursday by 3.7 kopecks.

2. The euro on the international FOREX market on Wednesday traded in a narrow range of 1.1528-1.1556 dollars – practically at the same levels as yesterday. At the time of fixing, the euro was sold at 1.15351 dollars – 4.8 points lower than on Tuesday (1.15399 dollars). Therefore, the NBU lowered the official euro rate for Thursday by another 6.4 kopecks.

On the cash market today, there was no single trend. In Kyiv and Kharkiv by evening, the dollar cheapened by 4 kopecks, in Dnipro – by 3 kopecks, and in Lviv and Odesa, on the contrary, it became 1 kopeck more expensive. Such minor changes are a sign of the dollar rate stability in Ukraine: the cash market sees that the NBU strictly keeps the situation under control on the interbank market, and also almost does not change.

However, tomorrow a reason for the currency market participants' concerns will still appear. At the NBU meeting on monetary policy issues, they will decide whether to leave the rate unchanged at 15.5% per annum or raise it to 16%. The decision will influence the currency market sentiment: because raising the rate will be a sign that keeping the exchange rate stable is becoming increasingly difficult.