Ukrainians in Poland begin to withdraw cash half as much, and in Germany on the contrary - 6% more - NBU

Ukrainians in Poland began to withdraw cash half as much, and in Germany on the contrary - 6% more.

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

In November 2022, in order to study the geographical and target structure of spending of Ukrainians abroad, the NBU conducted a pilot survey of the five largest banks on the use of Ukrainian cards abroad.

In September 2023, a second survey was conducted, in which six banks took part. The level of coverage of transactions in retail networks was almost unchanged (84% on average for May - October 2022 and 85% in November 2022 - July 2023), and increased in terms of cash withdrawal operations (from 69% to 74%, respectively).

It is reported that the total spending in retail networks remained high, and their geographical structure was stable: the highest volumes of expenses were traditionally observed in Poland and Germany, which received the largest number of forced migrants from Ukraine.

The volume of cash withdrawals has decreased rapidly since March 2023, including thanks to the slowing down of "card tourism."

This was the result of NBU measures aimed at increasing the attractiveness of hryvnia assets, calibration of currency restrictions, improving the flow of currency between interbank and cash markets in Ukraine, strengthening the effectiveness of financial monitoring and foreign exchange supervision measures.

The reduction in cash withdrawals in Ukraine's neighbors led to significant relative changes in the geographical structure of these operations: between February and July 2023, Poland's share decreased from 37% to 18%, Slovakia - from 15% to 2%, Romania - from 8% to 1%.

Instead, Germany's share grew - from 6% to 13% and Spain - from 3% to 7%.

A slight increase in spending in the summer months is caused by the revival of seasonal holidays, as evidenced by the largest increase in the countries of "maritime tourism": Italy, Bulgaria, Croatia, Spain and Greece.

It is noted that during the third quarter of 2023, the return of migrants to Ukraine began, but it was smaller than expected.

According to the UN, the number of migrants outside Ukraine fell to 6.2 million at the end of September 2023 (from 6.3 million in June 2023), the State Border Guard Service reported about 100,000 migrants returning during August.

The number of migrants may increase slightly by the end of this year: due to the increased risks of attacks on energy infrastructure, some citizens are likely to spend the heating season abroad.

As a result, it is estimated that the number of migrants at the end of 2023 will be higher than at the end of 2022 (about 200,000 people).

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, in July 2022, the National Bank reduced the monthly limit on transfers of citizens abroad from hryvnia payment cards of Ukrainian banks.

So, from July 21:

- citizens, as before, will be able to withdraw from hryvnia payment cards abroad UAH 50,000 (equivalent) per month. At the same time, the limit for withdrawing cash currency from hryvnia payment cards abroad was changed from monthly to weekly: UAH 12,500 (equivalent) to seven calendar days;

- the monthly limit for P2P-transfers of citizens abroad from hryvnia payment cards of Ukrainian banks was reduced from UAH 100,000 (equivalent) to UAH 30,000 (equivalent);

- a monthly limit was established for payments abroad using hryvnia payment cards in the amount of UAH 100,000 (equivalent) from all client's accounts in a bank opened in national currency. The vast majority of citizens who are abroad will not feel this restriction.