Exchange offices hold back dollar devaluation due to cash currency situation

While on the interbank foreign exchange market the dollar dropped below the psychological level, on the cash currency exchange market price tags are being lowered very reluctantly.

According to information from the "Kurs Ukrainy" portal, cash market operators complain that currency (especially the dollar) is being sold poorly. To compete with banks, they have to keep a high purchase rate, and therefore the sale rate cannot be reduced significantly. In Kyiv, wholesale exchange points today sell the ordinary ("white") dollar at 45.07 hryvnias. This is 5 kopecks cheaper than yesterday afternoon. In Dnipro, the dollar is sold at 44.12-44.15 hryvnias, in Odesa – at 44.18 hryvnias, in Khmelnytskyi – at 44.20 hryvnias, in Poltava – at 44.25 hryvnias.

Ukrainian banks by 11:00 sell the dollar at prices from 45.12 hryvnias in the western branches of Bank Lviv to the Kyiv branch of Sky Bank, to 45.55 hryvnias in Zaporizhzhia Metabbank. As for the euro, at the moment the cheapest place to buy it is at 50.50 hryvnias in three banks at once: the Kyiv branch of Sky Bank, Bank ¾, and Universalbank. Looking at the sharp movements of the euro on FOREX, Ukrainian bankers are at a loss: what euro rate to set? Therefore, they often keep a wide spread between buying and selling in order to at least try to protect themselves from losses.

According to analysts of the "Kurs Ukrainy" portal, even in the case of a further fall of the euro against the dollar on FOREX, the price of cash euro in Ukraine is unlikely to fall below 50 hryvnias. That is, now it is approaching its minimum values.