The National Bank of Ukraine has revised upwards the forecast for the surplus of the country's balance of payment for 2016 to $600 million, while earlier the deficit of $200 million was expected, the central bank said in a press release, referring to the decisions of the meeting of the board held on Thursday.

According to the document, the forecast for the deficit of the current account of the balance of payment was revised downwards from $1.2 billion to $2.5 billion or 3% of GDP.

"If some risks take place, the deficit could be higher, which would affect the inflation pace. The risks include the decline of the prices of Ukrainian exported goods and the devaluation of the currencies of Ukraine's partner countries," the bank said.

The NBU has revised upwards the deficit of Ukraine's current account in 2015 from $700 million to $200 million, although due to a shortfall of foreign financing the assessment of the surplus of the consolidated balance was revised downwards from $2 billion to $700 million.

The central bank expects that the deficit of the current account of the balance of payment would slightly narrow in 2017, to $2 billion.

According to the new forecast, expectations for Ukraine's forex reserves for 2016 were revised downwards from $20.2 billion to $19.6 billion and it is planned that they would expand to $22.3 billion by late 2017.