Monetary base improves 1.3% mom in February

Ukraine’s monetary base increased 1.3% mom (-0.1% YTD) and its money supply declined 0.8% mom (+1.7% YTD) in February, according to NBU data released on March 13. The NBU continued to lend actively, increasing its state bonds portfolio by UAH 6.0 bln over the month.

Alexander Paraschiy: A growing state bonds portfolio and active state spending (with government cash residuals down 31.3%) are the main reasons for the monetary base increase. So far, we are keeping our forecast for monetary base growth at 6.1% in 2013. However, the monetary aggregate might increase faster if devaluation concerns do not surface throughout the year.