OREANDA-NEWS. The National Bank of Ukraine has optimized the composition of international reserves. The move has been linked to the alignment of the composition of international reserves with the external position of the country. In September 2014, the National Bank of Ukraine decided to increase the share of US dollar in the reserve basket as U.S. dollars and euro account for 70.3% and 15% respectively of the balance of trade structure. In addition, 77.7% of the gross external public debt of Ukraine is denominated in U.S. dollars, with the shares of Euro and SDR denominated debt amounting to 11.2% and 5.8% respectively.

The global foreign exchange markets have been excessively volatile recently due to the appreciation of the U.S. dollar against other world currencies. Therefore, the National Bank of Ukraine has decided to reduce the share of gold in the international reserves to 8%. To this end, it has sold 0.46 million troy ounces in the international markets and bought U.S. dollars. Accordingly, the share of gold in international reserves has been reduced to 7.9%.

According to the IMF data, the share of gold in the global reserves stock, on average, stands at 11.7%, whereas that in the developing countries' gold and FX reserves, on average, stands at 4.4%.