OREANDA-NEWS. September 02, 2011. In July the current account deficit remained at a rather high level of USD 574mn (USD 239mn in June) due to the deceleration of merchandise export growth. Even the substantial decline in the import of natural gas did not improve the dynamics of the current account. For the first 7 months of 2011 the current account deficit increased to USD 3.3bn (compared to the surplus of USD 313mn at the same period of the previous year), reported the press-centre of NBU.     

Merchandise exports growth was decelerating for the majority of the commodity groups.
Yoy growth rate made up 26.4% (compared to 42.7% in June). Mainly it was related to the low export values of the agricultural products (1.6% less compared to July 2010). Export of grain (current year’s harvest) decreased under the stronger competition from the side of Russian suppliers and their dumping prices. Also, as a result of worsening the forecasts for the world economy, the export growth of the main commodity groups slowed down: for ferrous metals and products to 25.1% (36.0% in the first half of the year), for chemical products to 54.5% (62.8% in the first half of the year), for equipment and machinery to 29.8% (36.3% in the first half of the year).

The growth rate of merchandise imports became equal to that of exports.
It declined to 26.3% (compared to 45.3% in June) due to the substantial drop in the import of natural gas. In July despite the increase in prices the import value of gas was 2.1 times lower compared to the average level during the first half of 2011. Also there was the reduction of yoy growth of mashinery imports (from 65.0% in June to 51.4% in July) and chemical production (from 24.4% to 12.6%).

The capital and financial account surplus in July was high enough to cover the current account deficit.
The surplus in the amount of USD 682mn (compared to the deficit of USD 95mn in June) was formed thanks to the reduction of the amount of foreign assets (loans and deposits abroad) of Ukrainian residents by USD 684mn. For the first 7 months the surplus of capital and financial account increased to USD 5.2bn (compared to USD 4.9bn at the same period of the previous year).

The overall balance of payments during the last few months was close to zero.
In July it turned to the surplus of USD 108mn (compared to the deficit of USD 376mn in June). It allowed to increase the stock of international reserves to USD 37.8bn, covering 4.5 months of the future imports.