KYIV, April 18 – The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) expects a significant deterioration in trade indicators in 2022, but with a current account deficit near zero at the end of the year, Deputy Governor of the NBU Serhiy Nikolaychuk said during a discussion organized by the Center for Economic Strategy (CES).

"So far, given our basic assumptions, we expect the current account deficit to be close to zero throughout this year. But in the memo, take into account that the outflow from the current financial account will be quite significant," he said.

The deputy head of the National Bank noted that he had questions about the statistics recently published by the Ministry of Economy, in which imports in March fell significantly more than exports.

"Based on the payments that we see, we do not see such a sharp reduction in imports and do not see that exports feel much better than imports," Nikolaychuk stated.

According to him, an important component is the expansion of expenses of Ukrainian citizens abroad, which are not visible in the statistics for imports, but are visible in the payments of Ukrainian banks in foreign currency for Visa and Mastercard settlements.

"In the balance of payments, this is an operation that leads to an expansion of the current account deficit," the deputy head of the NBU explained. (om/ez)