KIEV, Jan. 18 – The National Bank of Ukraine on Tuesday denied allegations from opposition leaders that it’s been increasingly printing hryvnias to help the government meet budget revenue targets.

“Any uncontrolled and unreasonable money-printing is absent,” the NBU said in a statement. “The money issued in circulation has been directed towards servicing real economic growth, people’s savings and needs of businesses.

The NBU reacted to allegations by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, now the leader of the largest opposition party, that about 100 billion hryvnias had been printed in 2010.

“The authorities decided to make money by printing hryvnias,” Tymoshenko said. “This [printed] money is channeled as re-financing to commercial banks they control. This money is not backed by economic growth, which means it is causing price hikes. This is what we’re observing right now.”

The allegations of rampant money printing come weeks after Serhiy Arbuzov, a little-known banker with close ties to the family of President Viktor Yanukovych, has been appointed the governor of the NBU.

Arbuzov, who began his banking carrier in 1998 as the head of a regional branch of Privatbank in Donetsk, for years had been leading a small commercial bank, UkrBiznesBank, thought to be controlled by Oleksandr Yanukovych, the elder son of President Yanukovych.

Another commercial bank that is controlled by Oleksandr Yanukovych, Vseukrayinskiy Bank Rozvytku, or VBR, has recently announced plans to almost double its capital by injecting 100 million hryvnias through an upcoming private share placement.

Arbuzov’s mother, Valentyna Arbuzova, is the chairperson of the VBR board and is thought to be the key figure behind the bank’s aggressive expansion strategy.

VBR is the No. 138 bank in Ukraine and manages 348 million hryvnias in assets, a sharp increase from 80 million hryvnias a year ago.

Arbuzov, who owns 2.3% of UkrBiznesBank, reported 150.5 million hryvnias in personal income in 2009, including 150 million hryvnias from ‘dividends, interest and royalty,’ according to papers circulated in Parliament.

Meanwhile, Arbuzov on Tuesday refused to report names of companies that had paid him 150 million hryvnias in ‘dividends, interest and royalty’ in 2009.

In a letter written to Ukrayinska Pravda online newspaper, Serhiy Kruhlyk, the head of the External Relations Department at the NBU, cited an article No. 32 of the constitution that does not allow releasing ‘confidential’ personal and family information on Ukrainian people without their consent. (tl/ez)