The National Bank of Ukraine announced yesterday on its website that it lowered its refinancing rate on overnight loans guaranteed by government bonds from 16.0% to 15.5%, and without guarantees from 18.0% to 17.0%. The new rate will take effect today, August 12. Andrii Parkhomenko: As we predicted in our news comment yesterday, the move follows a decrease in the NBU’s discount rate from 11% to 10.25%. Meanwhile, central bank refinancing remains hardly accessible for commercial banks, hence we do not expect that the cuts in the refinancing rates will substantially improve the situation in Ukraine’s banking sector.