Ukraine's central bank said on Friday it would intervene on the interbank market on Monday and hold auctions on April 29 and May 6. The bank said it would sell dollars at 7.9 hryvnias and buy them at 7.7 on Monday, rates unchanged for more than two months as part of its efforts to prop the Ukrainian currency, which has lost about 60 percent of its value since last September.
In an earlier statement, it said it planned an auction for US dollars on April 29 and for Swiss francs on May 6. The central bank has used the two instruments to offer foreign currency at privileged rates virtually every day. On Friday, it sold euros at an auction at a rate of 10.17. On the interbank market on Friday, the dollar was trading at 8.02-8.05 for buying and 8.0-8.1 for sales. The euro stood at 10.63 and 10.70. Analysts say the central bank's actions in support of the hryvnia have halted the currency's steep decline of last year.