Hryvnia continues to strengthen slowly

Макроэкономика 20.04.2015 As Interfax-Ukraine reported a 0.2% appreciation of the hryvnia from 21.10/USD on Thursday to 21.05/USD by Friday's close, the NBU's weighted average rate rose 1.8% from 21.50/USD to 21.11/USD, Bloomberg reported the rate flat at 20.95/USD. While no NBU intervention was reported (namely of buying US dollars), the market appeared balanced and the hryvnia appears to be strengthening. In trade-weighted terms, the hryvnia's rise was magnified by the 5.1% drop of the Russian ruble. Assisted slightly by the euro's 1.1% recovery, the hryvnia's trade-weighted index increased 1.41%. Because of these developments, the hryvnia's undervaluation appears to have narrowed. If hryvnia was 21.2% undervalued at the beginning of last week, it narrowed to 13.5% at last Friday's close.