KYIV, Feb 15 – Strong hard currency earnings by grain exporters and steelmakers as well as foreign investors buying Treasury bills helped boost local currency, the hryvnia, in February, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) said Thursday.

"Since the beginning of the year, the volume of the hryvnia-pegged T-bills in the nonresident portfolio has more than doubled, to UAH 12 billion from UAH 5.1 billion," the NBU said.