KIEV, Aug. 23 - The National Bank of Ukraine expects its gross international reserves will increase 2%-3% in 2006, National Bank Deputy Chairman Oleksandr Savchenko told Interfax.

"We have been buying more foreign currency lately and are replenishing our currency reserves. We are planning to end the year with a slight increase in the gold and foreign currency reserves from this year. This rate [of buying foreign currency on the interbank market] will allow us to increase our gold and foreign currency reserves by 2%-3% this year," he said.