16:17 01.07.2015

Surplus of Ukraine's balance of payments comes to $320 mln in May 2015 - NBU

3 min read
Surplus of Ukraine's balance of payments comes to $320 mln in May 2015 - NBU

The surplus of Ukraine's consolidated balance of payments in May 2015 was $320 million, which is 3.2 times less than in May 2014, according to preliminary data posted on the website of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).

The central bank said that this is the first positive value recorded in the current year, while in general in the first five months of the current year the deficit of the balance of payments narrowed to $1.79 billion, which is almost twice as good in January-May 2014.

According to the NBU, the current account balance after the two months of positive values in May again slightly went down to negative values, amounting to a mere $10 million, while in May last year the deficit reached $400 million.

At the same time, in May for the first time since the beginning of the year capital inflow worth $330 million was observed as a result of eurobond placement under U.S. guarantees for $1 billion, the NBU said.

"The formation of the consolidated balance surplus led to the increase in international reserves to $9.9 billion, providing for import funding during two months," the NBU said.

Describing the situation with foreign trade, the NBU said that the fall in exports in May accelerated to 42.3% and amounted to $2.7 billion. Exports of all major groups of goods fell, including steel products - by 49.3% (in April - 40.9%), food - by 27.4% (in April - 22.5%), mineral products (including ore), engineering goods - by 2 times.

In general, exports of goods in January-May declined by 36.4%, while the drop in exports to Russia reached 2.6 times, which led to a drop in the share of this country in the overall structure of Ukrainian exports to 11% (from 18.3% in January-May 2014), while the share of exports to the EU for the five months amounted to 30.3%.

According to the regulator, the reduction in imports of goods also accelerated to 45.2%, and its volumes in May were equal to $2.9 billion. In the reporting month both energy and non-energy imports decreased: by 43.1% and 46.3% in annual terms respectively, in particular engineering products - by 44.5%, chemicals - by 35.6%, food - by 45.7%.

In general, for the five months imports decreased by 39.3%, in particular from Russia - by 2.3 times, which led to a decrease in the share of this country in total imports from 26.7% to 19.4%. Imports from EU countries decreased by 24%, but in total imports increased from 27.3% to 34.2%.

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