Companies@UA: База компаний Украины

Kyiv, August 6 (Interfax) - Ukraine's international reserves declined 6.1% in the first seven months of 2009 year-on-year, including an increase of 8.3% in July, to $29.625 billion, a source at the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) told Interfax.

Reserves were boosted in July by receipt of the $3.3-billion third tranche of the IMF stand-by loan, as well as favorable exchange rate movements on the currencies contained in the reserves.

The NBU has spent about $168 million from the reserves to defend the hryvnia since the beginning of August, compared with $1.12 billion in July and about $7.6 billion for the entire year.

Without that support the hryvnia would have weakened substantially over the course of the year, the source said.

Meanwhile, according to a statement posted on the NBU web site citing provisional data, the international reserves equaled $29.635 billion as of July 31. It says the NBU sold $1.121 billion more on the currency exchange than it purchased, up from $689.8 million in June.

In addition, the total volume of operations on the exchange rose 8.5% in July compared with July to $12.229 billion.

According to the NBU, the official hryvnia/dollar exchange rate declined 0.89% to UAH 7.698 /$1; the hryvnia/euro was down 0.58% to UAH 10.817999 /1 euro; and the hryvnia/ruble rate rose 1.14% to UAH 2.4241 /10 rubles.