Ukraine's forex reserves expanded by $98 million or 0.53% in October 2017, and as of November 1, 2017 reached $18.736 billion, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) posted the preliminary data on Tuesday on its website.

Since early 2017, forex reserves have grown by 21%.

The central bank said that receiving of $185.3 million by the government contributed to the inflow of reserves, including $170.3 million from placing government domestic loan bonds pegged to the foreign currency. Some $100 million was received from swap transactions with an authorized bank on the market. However, $147.2 million were sent for currency interventions from the forex reserves.

In October, the NBU sold $181.2 million on the interbank currency market, including $41 million in the form of choosing the best exchange rate. The central bank bought $34 million choosing the best exchange rate last month. $30.9 million was sent to service the state and guaranteed debt in foreign currency, including $3.3 million to service government bonds pegged to foreign currency.

As of November 1, 2017, the forex reserves cover 3.7 months of future imports and its amount is enough to meet Ukraine's liabilities and carry out current transactions of the government and the NBU.