The balance of answers of financial sector participants to the question about its current state in May 2023 for the first time since the start of the full-scale war became positive (+11%): almost a third rated it as good, and only 9% - below satisfactory, the National Bank of Ukraine reported on the results of a semi-annual survey on the systemic risks of the financial sector.

"The majority of respondents reported an improvement in the state of the financial sector over the past six months. In November 2022, there were only 3% of such respondents, now it is 57%. And only every ninth respondent reported a deterioration in the state of the financial sector," the NBU states.

As indicated in the survey, the balance of answers to this question jumped from "minus" 40% in November to "plus" 24%.

The National Bank added that the expectations of financial market participants for the future have also noticeably improved: the share of respondents who expect its condition to worsen in the next six months has decreased from 51% in November to 3% at present, and almost 70% of respondents do not expect changes over the next six months. As a result, the balance of responses grew from "minus" 23% to "plus" 13% within six months.

It is noted that over the past six months, assessments of the overall level of risk in the financial sector have also noticeably improved: the proportion of respondents who considered its level to be high or very high decreased from 83% to 58%.

For the second consecutive survey, respondents improve their own assessments of the financial sector’s resilience to significant negative events: the balance of answers for six months increased from 6% to 19%, which was a record value since the start of the survey in May 2018.