The volume of non-return of foreign currency earnings to Ukraine doubled during the war. This was stated by the head of the NBU Andriy Pyshny during a speech at an event of the European Business Association, Interfax-Ukraine reports.
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The head of the NBU asks businesses to return currency on time
Pyshny addressed business with a request to return foreign exchange earnings in a timely manner and in full and to avoid fictitious import schemes.
“Unreturned export proceeds over time war has almost doubled. This is a problem and we need to talk about it. We are also running schemes related to fictitious imports, which are bleeding our gold and foreign exchange reserves,” said the head of the National Bank.
Pyshny noted that the resource for further easing currency restrictions is objectively limited, since it depends on export revenues and international financial assistance to the country, with the rhythm of which certain difficulties have already arisen.
At the same time, the head of the NBU noted that Ukraine has already managed to survive for two months without external assistance, although in 2022 this scenario seemed unrealistic.
Pyshny also noted that in the basic forecast the National Bank still assumes that external assistance in the amount of $37 billion planned in the state budget for 2024 will be received in full.
How much currency business did not return to Ukraine
The volume of non-return of foreign currency earnings to Ukraine exceeds $8 billion, Andrey Pyshny said in December last year.
To combat this phenomenon, the National Bank from November 11 2023 reduced the deadline for settlements for transactions on export of agricultural goods from 180 to 90 calendar days.