KIEV: The surplus of Ukraine’s consolidated balance of payment in 2015 reached $849 million, while in 2014 its deficit was $13.3 billion, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) reported on its website. According to the report, earlier the surplus of the country’s balance of payment was recorded in 2010.
“This first was a result of the large reduction of the deficit of the current account. Last year it was the smallest since 2005. If in 2014, the indicator reached $4.6 billion (3.5% of GDP), in 2015 it shrank to $204 million (0.2% of GDP),” the regulator said.
The NBU also said that the quicker fall in imports by 33.5% compared to the decline of exports by 30.5% helped to balance the indicator of the current account. The central bank said that the surplus of the financial account also improved the state of the balance of payment: net borrowing on the financial account totaled $488 million, first thanks to the official financing by international partners.
In addition, the NBU said that net foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow of $3.1 billion improved the state of the financial account. Three fourths of FDI were sent to the banking sector and were linked to the additional capitalization of banks by parent banks.
The regulator said that growth of international reserves in 2015 to UAH 13.3 billion thanks to the formation of the surplus of the balance of payment along with financing from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) allows financing imports in the future period for 3.4 months.
