Trust in Ukraine’s National Bank doubles during quarantine – Smolii

Confidence in the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has more than doubled in March-April 2020.

NBU Governor Yakiv Smolii said this during his speech in the Verkhovna Rada on May 13, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"According to the Razumkov Center, the balance of trust in the National Bank has more than doubled in March-April," Smolii said.

He emphasized that since the introduction of quarantine the Bank’s actions had been aimed at achieving four goals. The first one is to protect the health of those who actively use financial services and those who use cash. The second goal is to ensure high-quality and uninterrupted operation of the financial system during quarantine. The third one is to support the economy with affordable monetary resources and create conditions in which the economy will resume its growth after quarantine.

“Now, when two months of quarantine have passed, I can say that we have successfully completed the task. Moreover, without any painful restrictions. We reacted very quickly. On March 12, we lowered the discount rate in order to support the economy in a pandemic, and in April we continued to reduce it. In general, for two months, the discount rate has decreased from 11% to 8%," Smolii added.

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