KYIV, July 6 - Ukraine's foreign exchange reserves rose 2% in June to $28.35 billion as of July 1 due to the central bank’s interventions on the forex market, the National Bank of Ukraine reported Tuesday.

"In June, the reserves grew by 2% due to foreign exchange charges in favor of the government and NBU interventions, which compensated for the repayment of external and internal obligations of the state," the NBU said.

Dynamics of reserves in June were affected by operations on government debt management - the total volume of payments for servicing and repaying government and government-guaranteed debt in foreign currency amounted to $995.6 million (in equivalent), the NBU said.

The NBU said that $848 million was spent on servicing and redeeming government domestic loan bonds, $80.1 million - on servicing eurobonds, and the rest - on fulfilling other government obligations in foreign currency.

At the same time, foreign exchange earnings in favor of the government amounted to $1.095 billion (in equivalent), including $726.3 million from the placement of government bonds.

In May, the NBU and the government sent $2.3 million to the IMF.

It is indicated that the dynamics of reserves were also influenced by the operations of the NBU in the interbank market. In particular, the NBU replenished its reserves by $682.8 million due to the fact that for most of the month the supply of foreign exchange on the interbank market prevailed over demand, including due to the growing interest of non-residents in government bonds and the activation of exporters.

The NBU said that the volume of forex reserves now covers 4.3 months of imports, which is clarified that this is enough to fulfill the obligations of Ukraine and the current operations of the government and the central bank.

In addition, the NBU clarified that Ukraine's net international reserves in June increased by $623 million, or 3.6%, to $17.977 billion. (om/ez)