Experts predict situation on currency market will be more stable than last year
2013-02-12 16:17:54
The situation on the currency market in Ukraine in 2013 will be more stable than last year, in particular, due to a decline in the demand for foreign currency among the public, experts believe.
"This year the situation on the foreign exchange market should be more stable than in the past year. Although we will hardly reach a significant pace of economic growth, economic growth will still be significant. Moreover, global crisis phenomena also have to be smaller than last year's. I think that under effective cooperation between the Cabinet of Ministers and the National Bank of Ukraine it will be possible to ensure macroeconomic stability in the banking sector, on the foreign exchange market and in the issue of inflation. Here it's unnecessary to expect any unpleasant surprises," Head of the Department of Economic and Social Strategy at the National Institute for Strategic Studies Yaroslav Zhalilo said.
The expert noted that there is no reason for destabilization on the currency market in 2013.
"Last year there were situational fluctuations associated with hryvnia supply and demand on the foreign exchange market. I currently see no grounds for the destabilization of the exchange rate in the period that we can predict - at least the first half of the year," he said.
According to a chief financial analyst at the Expert Rating agency, Vitaliy Shapran, a decline in the demand of Ukrainians for U.S. dollars can become one of the stabilizing factors in 2013.
"The demand could fall, especially through those measures that the NBU took last year. Moreover, recalling what peak the currency market reached in early September and November last year, I can really advise people not to strive to keep the currency in case of panic. Remember those people who in 2009 bought U.S. dollars at UAH 10 and six months later they were able to buy U.S. dollars at UAH 8. I admit that experiments by the central bank on the filling of the system with liquidity will be progressively successful, and we will still see fluctuations on the foreign exchange market amid falling interest rates on loans and deposits," Shapran predicted.