$2.6 billion in a month and a half: Ukrainians massively withdraw money abroad
Ukrainians do not trust their financial system and in a month and a half withdrew $2,6 billion from banks, so the National Bank of Ukraine clarified restrictions on cross-border transactions of citizens in order to prevent the outflow of capital from the country under martial law.
This was reported by the NBU press service.
“Starting from the end of March, supply and demand for export-import transactions of clients on the foreign exchange market are generally balanced. At the same time, significant volumes of currency purchases by banks for settlements with international payment systems create a certain additional pressure on the foreign exchange market. In particular, in March, the volume of net transfers of foreign currency by Ukrainian banks in favor of international payment systems amounted to USD 1,7 billion, and since the beginning of April (as of April 18) – USD 0,9 billion,” the statement said. National Bank.
The need for settlements with international payment systems, as noted, arises, in particular, due to the use of payment cards to pay for “quasi cash” transactions.
“They are mainly carried out to circumvent the current restrictions of the National Bank, in particular for investing abroad, which is prohibited under martial law. Consequently, the corresponding transactions should be interpreted as leading to an unproductive withdrawal of capital from the country. As a result, the National Bank has temporarily partially limited the ability to carry out such operations,” the NBU explained.
Ukrainians will now be able to purchase assets that are directly convertible (exchanged) into cash and related to quasi cash transactions, using only their own foreign currency. The limit on such operations is 100 thousand UAH per month (in equivalent). The corresponding limit also applies to cross-border P2P transfers.
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