Deficit of current account’s balance of payments makes USD 0.8 billion in September

The deficit of the current account of the balance of payments in September 2023 made USD 0.8 billion (in September 2022, the surplus was USD 1.7 billion).

This is evidenced by National Bank of Ukraine data, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

The formation of the deficit is due to the expansion of the negative balance of foreign trade (both due to the decrease in export volumes and the increase in imports), smaller amounts of grant aid from international partners, as well as the growth of payments for income from investments.

In the first nine months of 2023, the current account deficit was USD 5.5 billion (in the first nine months of 2022, the surplus was USD 7.9 billion).

Excluding reinvested income and grants from international partners, the deficit amounted to USD 13.1 billion (for the first nine months of 2022 - USD 2.3 billion).

The export of goods decreased by 35.9%, while their import increased by 16.7%.

Compared to the previous month, the export and import of goods decreased by 1.9% and 3.1%, respectively.

The volume of the exports of goods amounted to USD 2.5 billion.

Exports decreased in almost all major product groups.

In September 2023, the export of goods to all regions of the world decreased: the largest drop in nominal terms was observed to EU countries (by USD 907 million or 35.3%, the share of countries increased from 65.9% to 66.5%) and Asia (by USD 422 million or 50.3%), with their share decreasing from 21.5% to 16.7%).

The export of goods to African countries (by USD 68 million or 43.0%), America (by USD 48 million or 40.9%) and CIS countries (by USD 33 million or 19.4%) also decreased.

The volume of import of goods amounted to USD 5.4 billion.

Energy imports decreased by 17.3% (increased by 32.7% compared to August) mainly due to the import of petroleum products; non-energy - increased by 26.7% (decreased by 7.9% compared to August).

In September 2023, in nominal terms, imports from EU countries increased the most (by USD 382 million or 17.5%, and the share of countries increased from 47.6% to 47.9%) and Asia (by USD 192 million or 12.3%, their share decreased from 34.1 % to 32.8%).

Imports from American countries also increased (by USD 116 million or 1.5 times, the share of countries increased from 5.0% to 6.5%).

Instead, imports from the CIS countries decreased (by USD 19 million or 15.7%, and their share in the import of goods decreased from 2.6% to 1.9%).

The surplus of the consolidated balance of payments amounted to USD 273 million (in September 2022, the deficit was USD 750 million).

The planned repayment of the debt to the IMF amounted to USD 882 million.

This led to a decrease in international reserves to USD 39.7 billion, which provides financing of imports for the future period for 5.3 months.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, the balance of payments current account surplus in 2022 was USD 8.6 billion (5.8% of GDP) compared to a deficit of USD 3.9 billion (1.9% of GDP) in 2021.

In general, for 2022, the consolidated balance of payments was formed with a deficit of USD 2.9 billion (in 2021, the surplus was USD 487 million).