Ukraine's exports lag due to slow harvest, but foreign exchange earnings are growing – NBU

The National Bank reported that Ukraine’s exports are still lagging, especially in the agricultural sector. The main reason is delays in harvesting caused by weather conditions. At the same time, export revenues are showing growth. This was stated by Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine Volodymyr Lepushynsky during a press briefing, as reported by UNN.

DetailsLepushynsky stated that the pace of harvesting this year is lower than last year, which affected not only the volume of foreign supplies but also the transport industry.

Currently, exports are lagging, especially agricultural goods, which is our main source of exports. However, this is mainly due to the fact that the pace of harvesting is still behind last year’s. Therefore, this is mainly due to weather conditions. That is, here, this hindered not only exports – it hindered, for example, the transport industry

He added that there are no critical processes at the moment, and the updated NBU macro-forecast will be presented in January.

Therefore, we do not observe any critical processes yet. We will monitor the development of the situation and present our new macro-forecast in January.

Despite the lag in export volumes, foreign exchange earnings are increasing. In the 11 months of this year, Ukraine received 45.6 billion dollars in export earnings.

In terms of export revenue, we see a 1.5 percent increase compared to last year, meaning that in 11 months of the current year, 45.6 billion dollars were received as export revenue in Ukraine. I additionally emphasize that the indicator in 2024 was 20 percent higher than in 2023, largely due to the actions we took jointly with the government.

RecallOn December 11, the National Bank of Ukraine maintained the key policy rate at 15.5%. This decision was made due to concerns about rising inflation and the stability of the foreign exchange market.