KIEV, Dec. 15 – The hryvnia plummeted 8% against the U.S. dollar on Monday amid concerns Ukraine’s financial crisis may be worse than government forecasts and the country’s forex reserves may vanish before the end of 2009.

The hryvnia closed at 8.30 hryvnias to the dollar in trading between commercial banks on Monday, compared with 7.67/dollar at the previous trading session on Friday, dealers said.

The latest drop makes the hryvnia the world’s worst performing currency against the U.S. dollar over the past 30 days after the Zimbabwean dollar, according to Bloomberg data.

The hryvnia lost 29.16% of its value against the U.S. dollar over the past 30 days, compared with 97.2% of the value lost by the Zimbabwean dollar, the data show.

Over the past three months, the Ukrainian hryvnia lost 41.31% of its value vs. the U.S. dollar to become the world’s third worst performing currency after the Zimbabwean dollar (-99.99%) and the Seychelles rupee (-51.57%), and just ahead of the Zambian kwacha (-32.37%), the data show.

The figures suggest Ukraine is much worst hit by the crisis compared with other countries in Europe, explaining the urgency of the International Monetary Fund’s recent move to approve a $16.4 billion emergency loan.

The hryvnia has been losing ground over the past three months, but the latest plunge comes amid increasing concerns that the crisis may be worse than had been expected by the government.

President Viktor Yushchenko, at a closed meeting with his party Our Ukraine on December 11, had apparently presented a dismal picture of the economy, which is badly hit by the lack of external demand for steel, the country’s main export commodity.

“The worst-case scenario suggests the National Bank of Ukraine will run out of forex reserves in July [2009],” Ukrayinska Pravda newspaper reported Monday citing a copy of the obtained Yushchenko’s address.

The report said the NBU may have negative forex reserves – at about minus $17 billion – before the end of December 2009, and only the IMF’s emergency loan would held the central bank to keep the reserves at the zero level.

“In the course of 2009, according to the [worst-case] scenario the reserves may vanish altogether,” the newspaper said.

The NBU had about $38 billion in forex reserves in early October, but is thought to have spent at least $7 billion so far to support the hryvnia, according to the NBU.

The IMF disbursed $4.5 billion loan to Ukraine last month, the first tranche of $16.4 billion emergency loan that had been approved for the country earlier this year.

The NBU would need the reserves to help banks and corporate borrowers to pay their debts in 2009, including $16.8 billion owned by banks, $3.1 billion owned by the state and $9.8 billion owned by companies and individuals, according to the report.

The report will increase pressure on Volodymyr Stelmakh, the governor of the NBU, to step down as many lawmakers have pushed hard for investigation of the way the NBU had reacted to the crisis.

The group led by Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and the opposition Regions Party may soon join forces in creating a commission to investigate the NBU’s alleged poor reaction to the crisis.

“We have a complete understanding on this issue and I think the commission will be created in the near future to find out where did the dollars go, why did the hryvnia plunge and so on,” Valeriy Kamchatniy, a Tymoshenko group lawmaker, said. (tl/ez)