The net international reserves of Ukraine as of January 1 amounted to $ 18.1 billion, which is 19% more than at the beginning of December 2020 ($ 15.2 billion), Head of the Council of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Bohdan Danylyshyn has said.

"The net forex reserves of the NBU [excluding the debt to the IMF] as of January 1, 2021 amounted to $ 18.1 billion and are sufficient to cover payments by the public sector and the National Bank on external debt to non-residents, which in 2021 will amount to about $ 7.2 billion," he said on Facebook.

Danylyshyn added that of the external debt to non-residents, about $ 2 billion should be paid by the government on eurobonds in September 2021, as well as to cover the current account deficit, which, according to the NBU forecast, is expected at $ 3.5 billion in 2021.

According to him, the volume of planned payments of the state in favor of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2021 is about $ 1.6 billion, including $ 1.36 billion for the repayment of the principal amount of the debt and $ 260 million for interest payments.

"The need to refinance Ukraine's debt to the IMF requires the parties to fulfill their obligations under the current Stand-By Arrangement, which will allow Ukraine to attract IMF financing in the amount of about $ 2.9 billion," he said.

He added that taking into account payments on the debt of banking and corporate sectors, as well as inter-company debt, the total volume of payments from Ukraine in favor of non-residents in 2021 will be about $ 15.5 billion.

As reported, the international reserves of Ukraine in 2020 increased by 15% and amounted to $ 29.1 billion as of January 1, 2021.