The increase in the deficit to $1.1 billion in July and $1.7 billion in January-July 2018 is the consequence of mainly temporary factors, over which the pace of exports remained almost at the level of the previous month, while imports growth accelerated, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has said.

"In particular, this concerns obstacles to cargo shipments in the Azov Sea by Russia, which resulted in a large fall in the pace of growth of exports of metal products: to 19.9% year-over-year in July from 35.2% year-over-year in June," the central bank said.

The regulator explains that this, in turn, slowed the overall growth pace of exports of goods, despite favorable prices on the external markets and an increase in the export of food products (8% year-over-year).

"At the same time, the growth in imports of goods in July accelerated significantly, to 24.9% year-over-year from 99% year-over-year in June, primarily due to non-energy imports due to stable investment and consumer demand," the NBU said.

The central bank said that the current account balance was also affected by a temporary increase in dividend payments after the period of holding general meetings of shareholders.