NBU Governor Gontareva explains reasons of three-fold hryvnia devaluation

Valeria Gontareva, the governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), said this during the annual conference "Transformation of Central Banking”.

"Unfortunately, the transition to flexible exchange rates was very difficult. The local currency has declined in value threefold. And this happened not because of unbalance, but because of the annexation of Crimea and catastrophic events that occurred in Ukraine in late 2014 - early 2015,” Gontareva said.

Furthermore, the NBU governor explained that 3.6% of GDP was lost after the annexation of Crimea, while after the occupation of Ukraine’s industrial part in the East, 10% of the territory, 15% of GDP and 30% of export revenues were lost.

But at the same time, according to Gontareva, the situation has stabilized.

"At present we are in a rather stable economic situation,” Gontareva added.

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