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which are the major items of Ukraine’s exports. A switch to surplus for the 2020 C/A seems to be quite a possible scenario.
Ukraine’s current account (C/A) surplus reached $590mn in January, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) reported on March 3.
External trade was almost balanced in January, with an insignificant deficit of $6mn (vs. the trade deficit of $1.2bn in December). In particular, the goods trade deficit dropped to $131mn from $1.2bn in December due to a drop in goods imports.
5.2.3​ Gross international reserves
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) burnt through over $2bn of its reserves defending the hryvnia in March ​narrowly staving off a currency meltdown. The NBU bought $264mn in the interbank foreign exchange market in March and sold $2.454bn, while the NBU bought $734mn and sold $45mn in February, according to central bank's statistics. In general, since the beginning of 2020 the NBU bought $1.346bn in reserves, but sold $2.748bn to smooth out excessive fluctuations of the national currency, the NBU said.
Ukraine’s gross international reserves jumped 1.3% m/m to $26.6bn in February​, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) reported on March 5. The NBU’s net purchase of the foreign currency in February reached $689mn. In addition, the government attracted $202mn through the placement of local Eurobonds.
However, by the end of March it was back to $24bn​ having spent the
31​ UKRAINE Country Report​ April 2018 ​ ​www.intellinews.com