Ukraine central bank to pay UAH 44 bln in dividends to state in 2017

The Council of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) approved the distribution of its UAH 59.5 bln in 2016 profit, according to its April 18 press release. Of the total profit, UAH 44.4 bln will be wired to the state budget and UAH 15.1 bln will be allocated to the own capital of the NBU.

The dividends will be paid in several tranches during the year so as to not affect liquidity in the banking sector and the achievement of planned inflation indicators, the NBU stated. The state budget envisages UAH 45 bln in contributions from the NBU in 2017.

Also the NBU council approved a plan of dividends for the next year, which is UAH 47.8 bln, according to council head Bohdan Danylyshyn.

Alexander Paraschiy: It’s very positive the Council made this decision on dividends distribution already in April. Last year, this decision was delayed for a long time due to the understaffed Council and the problem was resolved only at the end of October. As a result, the Finance Ministry received UAH 38.2 bln in dividends from the NBU only in October-December and ran record-high spending in the last month of the year, triggering hryvnia volatility in early 2017. It looks like this year, NBU wires to the budget and fiscal spending will be more properly planned.