The bank bid 7.3739 hryvnias per euro earlier in the day, according to the Reuters page .
Although
the bank trades euros and other currencies on the market, the deals are
usually made with individual banks and prices are not disclosed.
The
head of the bank`s advisory group, Valery Lytvytsky, said the open
bidding showed that the bank wanted a more transparent currency policy
and that buying up euros underlined a shift away from a strict dollar
peg.
"Even before, we never had a formal link to the dollar and
now, in this way, we are emphasising yet again that we do not have a
formal link to the dollar," he told Reuters.
The bank normally
intervenes on the market by buying or selling dollars, especially
during a strict three-year regime when it kept the hryvnia pegged to
the dollar at 5.00-5.06.
It dropped that policy around
February-March, allowing the hryvnia to strengthen against the dollar
on the market, and revaluing the official rate to 4.85 hryvnias. It has
since repeatedly altered that rate, which now stands at 4.84.
Purchases
on the market will allow the bank to increase its foreign currency
reserves to $38 billion this month from $35.439 billion as of June 30,
Lytvytsky said.
The bank has said before it will increase the
share of euros in its foreign currency reserves at the expense of the
dollar and that there were already more euros in the reserves than
dollars.
"We have our own notion about how to optimise the
structure of our currency reserves and are moving in that direction,"
Lytvytsky said.
"In future, we will see other methods of gradually fulfilling our currency rate policy," he said, but did not elaborate.
Earlier
this month, the bank`s council, which originally objected to the
decision taken by the bank`s executive board to revalue, said the
official rate to the end of the year should be 4.85/$ plus-minus 4
percent.
The hryvnia traded at about 4.60-4.63 to the dollar and 7.28/7.33 to the euro on Tuesday.
