In May 2025, international reserves of Ukraine decreased by 4.6% and amounted to 44.5 billion US dollars. This was the result of currency interventions by the regulator and debt payments of the state in foreign currency, informs press service of the National Bank of Ukraine.
The decrease in reserves was partly compensated by income from international partners and from the placement of currency bonds of the domestic state loan. Despite the reduction, the level of international reserves remains higher than at the beginning of the year and is sufficient to maintain the stability of the foreign exchange market.
Several factors influenced the change in reserves. Specifically, the National Bank sold $2.962 billion in the foreign exchange market in May, while buying only $1.3 million, for a net sale of $2.961 billion.
Government revenues included $1.36 billion in foreign currency accounts at the NBU, of which $1.13 billion are funds from the European Union under the G7 ERA initiative, and another $227 million are proceeds from the sale of foreign currency government bonds. In addition, there was a positive revaluation of financial instruments, which increased their value by $55.8 million.
310 million dollars were spent on servicing and repaying the state debt in foreign currency. Of this amount, 184.4 million is allocated to foreign currency bonds, 67.1 million to obligations to the European Investment Bank, 30.2 million to debt to the EBRD, and another 28.4 million to payments to other international creditors.
In addition, Ukraine made a payment of $296.3 million to the International Monetary Fund. Currently, the amount of international reserves covers future imports for 5.4 months.
