Ukraine's balance of payment had the deficit of $285 million in July 2017 after posting the surplus during three months, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) posted the preliminary data on its official website on Wednesday.

In January-July 2017, the surplus of the balance of payment reached $764 million (47.8% up year-over-year).

The central bank said that the deficit of the current account in July grew by 14.7% compared to June, to $594 million.

"The volume of export of goods in July slightly decreased compared to June, which was mainly due to low volumes of grain exports over the later start of the harvesting campaign, while imports of goods increased," the National Bank said.

Compared to July last year the current account deficit was increased by 38.5%. According to the NBU, on an annual basis, the growth of exports of goods slowed, primarily due to the more restrained growth pace of exports of ferrous and nonferrous metals and a reduction in the supply of chemical products. The growth pace of imports in the annual terms also continued to slow down due to the increase in the comparison base.

According to the NBU, the EU countries remain the largest trade partners of Ukraine. Their share of total exports of goods in January-July 2017 grew to 34.9% from 33.4% year-over-year and as for imports – to 38% from 36.4%.

The deficit of the current account in January-July totaled $2.16 billion (57.1% up year-over-year).

Net revenue of the financial account in July narrowed by 63% compared to June, to $302 million. Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow totaled $137 million (78.3% down on June and 58.5% down year-over-year).

Net FDI inflow to Ukraine is estimated at $1.3 billion in January-July ($1.1 billion less year-over-year).