NBU reserves drop 4.6% mom in January

The National Bank of Ukraine reported on Friday that its gold and foreign currency reserves decreased 4.6% mom in January to USD 25.3 bln. The reserves declined over 2009 by 16.0%. Mykyta Mykhaylychenko: The NBU spent USD 1.1 bln of its reserves in January on currency interventions on the domestic FX market, up from USD 0.1 bln in December. The population traditionally buys more foreign currency than it sells on the retail market. The difference was USD 833.6 bln in January, in line with the monthly average in 2H09, which was not compensated by the US dollar supply on the interbank market, as in December, due to low economic activity in January.