The monetary base in Ukraine in April fell by 0.5% or UAH 1.63 billion, to UAH 330.4 billion, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) said on its website on Wednesday.

Money supply in April fell by 4.7% or UAH 48.68 billion, to UAH 976.3 billion thanks to the strengthening of the hryvnia exchange rate and the $520 million outflow of currency-pegged deposits.

According to the report, off-bank cash grew by 0.4% or UAH 1.14 billion in April, to UAH 286 billion.

Since early 2015, the monetary base in Ukraine narrowed by 0.9% or UAH 2.84 billion, while off-bank cash grew by 1.1% or UAH 3.02 billion, while money supply rose by 2% or by UAH 19.54 billion.

The NBU said that ending stocks in hryvnia deposit accounts in April grew by 0.4% since early 2015 (it fell by 5% since early 2015), to UAH 347.5 billion thanks to the increase in the deposits of individuals by 2.4% (they fell by 7.8% since early 2015), to UAH 180.7 billion, while the deposits of companies fell by 1.6% (by 1.8% since early 2015), to UAH 166.9 billion.

Deposits in foreign currency fell by 3.1% in April (by 16.3% since early 2015), to $16.3 billion in the U.S. dollar equivalent, including a fall of 5.6% in the deposits of companies (by 14.7% since early 2015), to $4.9 billion and a fall of 2% in the deposits of individuals (by 17% since early 2015), to $11.4 billion.

Credits in the national currency decreased by 0.4% in April (by 5.3% since early 2015), to UAH 514 billion, including a decline of 0.4% in the credits of companies (by 6% since early 2015), to UAH 409.8 billion and a decline of 0.2% in the credits of individuals (by 2.4% since early 2015), to UAH 104.4 billion.

Credits in foreign currency decreased by 1.3% in April (by 7.3% since early 2015), to $27.8 billion, including a decline of 1.3% in the credits of companies (by 7.5% since early 2015), to $21.9 billion and a decline of 1% in the credits of individuals (by 6.4% since early 2015), to $5.9 billion.

According to the report, the volume of banks' correspondent accounts at the NBU in April decreased by 13% (since the start of the year it fell by 14.8%), to UAH 23.2 billion. The volume of obligatory reserves amounted to UAH 48 billion from March 11 to April 10, 2015.

In April the ratio between the refinancing credits issued by NBU to banks and the Individuals' Deposit Guarantee Fund and the volumes of funds returned totaled UAH 6.4 billion. The average rate in April was 32.18%.

The ratio between the funds borrowed via deposit certificates issued by NBU and the amount of paid deposit certificates by the regulator stood at UAH 9.1 billion. The average rate in April was 21.33% per annum.

The average rate for credits issued in the national currency in April fell from 24.16% to 23.9% and for deposits it grew from 12.36% to 15.43%, and that for credits issued in foreign currency it grew from 7.63% to 8.32% and deposit rate – from 6.34% to 7.33%.