Ukraine's foreign reserves fall 14.8 pct in January

Ukraine's foreign exchange reserves dropped 14.8 percent to about 6.419 billion U.S. dollars in January 2015, the National Bank said Thursday in a statement.

The monthly decline was mainly attributed to high expenditures to serve the country's external debt and conduct market interventions to shore up local currency, the hryvnya.

According to the bank, the country's foreign currency reserves amounted to 5.433 billion dollars by the end of last month, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reserve position was 19.5 million dollars and gold balances stood at 967.25 million dollars.

Last year, Ukraine's foreign exchange reserves have fallen from more than 20.416 billion dollars in January to 7.533 billion dollars in December, raising fears that the country may default on it huge international debt.

Ukraine, which has to repay about 11 billion dollars to its foreign lenders this year, needs about 15 billion dollars in extra aid from the IMF, some experts estimate.

Last year, the IMF has approved a loan of 17 billion dollars for Ukraine, of which Kiev has obtained 4.58 billion dollars to date. Endite