KYIV, Dec. 16 – The National Bank of Ukraine should accelerate interventions on the forex market and buy $50 million/day, up from $30 million/day currently, to slow down the pace of hryvnia’s appreciation, bankers said Monday.

The hryvnia has been steadily gaining value against the U.S. dollar over the past three months, fueled by strong ag commodity exports and purchases of T-bills by foreign investors. But the strong hryvnia is feared to eventually hurt exporters of machinery and steel.