Ukraine's foreign reserves up 17 pct in 2016

Ukraine's foreign exchange reserves increased by 17 percent or 2.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2016, the country's central bank said.

As of Jan. 1, Ukraine's reserves stood at 15.5 billion dollars, less than the targeted level of 17.5 billion dollars, the National Bank of Ukraine said late Thursday in a statement.

The central bank noted that the current level of Ukraine's foreign currency deposits can cover 3.7 months of the country's imports, and is sufficient to meet the obligations of the government and the central bank.

Ukraine managed to fill up its foreign reserves last year due to increased exports revenues, 1 billion dollars from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the same sum as credit guarantees from the United States, the bank said.

In 2015, Ukraine's foreign exchange reserves increased by 77 percent to 13.3 billion dollars, as the country received 6.7 billion dollars in two tranches from the IMF. Endi