KYIV, Jan 5 - The international reserves of Ukraine in 2017 increased by 21% and as of January 1, 2018, according to preliminary data, amounted to $18.808 billion, according to the website of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).

The central bank also specifies that in December international reserves decreased by 0.5%.

"Thus, the level of Ukraine's international reserves by the end of 2017 exceeded the forecast of the National Bank ($18.6 billion in equivalent, according to the inflation report for October 2017), despite a slight decrease in December by 0.5%," the report said.