Ukraine's central bank has banned foreign currency purchases on the interbank market and fixed the official hryvnia exchange rate on Feb. 24, Governor Kyrylo Shevchenko said on Thursday, as Ukrainian assets suffer after Russian forces invaded Ukraine.
Shevchenko said foreign currency sales would not be limited. He said the bank was prohibiting the issuance of cash in foreign currency and limiting cash withdrawals from accounts to 100,000 hryvnia ($3,356.67) a day.
The country’s state stock market regulator on Thursday also said it had decided to stop the circulation of all securities except for operations necessary for the central bank’s monetary policy and the finance ministry’s public debt servicing.
Ukraine’s National Bank said earlier on Wednesday it had sold $2.1 billion so far in 2022 to stabilize the hryvnia exchange rate.
"The National Bank emphasizes that the situation in the foreign exchange market remains under control," the bank said in a statement.
"Ukraine has a sufficient amount of international reserves – about $28 billion ... In addition, the international community has already announced large-scale financial assistance packages to Ukraine," it said.
