The volume of foreign currency purchases by the population of Ukraine in October 2024 exceeded the volume of sales by $1.39 billion, compared to $1.09 billion in September and $0.78 billion in August, marking a record high since November 2012, according to data from the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
According to these figures, this result is primarily due to an increase in cash currency purchases by $319 million compared to September, reaching $2 billion 585.4 million, while sales rose only by $42.2 million to $1 billion 312.6 million.
Cashless currency purchases in October increased by $26.3 million compared to the previous month, reaching $420.2 million, while sales went up by $5.6 million to $299.3 million.
In total, for the first 10 months of this year, the net currency purchase by the population reached $9.63 billion compared to $3.14 billion for the same period in 2023, including cash currency of $8.67 billion against $2.18 billion.
In the corporate market, the currency purchases by bank clients in October rose to $6.77 billion from $6.13 billion in September, marking the highest level since December 2023. Meanwhile, the increase in sales was more significant, rising to $5.38 billion from $4.59 billion in September.
As for the volume of transactions between banks, it grew for the second consecutive month, reaching $6.21 billion compared to $5.79 billion in September. This is the highest figure since the full-scale invasion of Russia, whereas before it, in February 2022, it was $12.1 billion.
As reported, the net sale of foreign currency by the National Bank on the interbank market in October this year reached a record level since the beginning of 2024 – $3.43 billion.
Ukraine's international reserves in October, according to preliminary estimates by the NBU, decreased by 6%, or $2.32 billion, to $36.58 billion, while net international reserves (NIR) fell by $3.11 billion, or 12.2%, to $22.44 billion.