Expert: as part of currency liberalization the NBU should ease the ban on the conversion of foreign currency loans for business

The National Bank of Ukraine is consistently pursuing currency liberalization and, as part of this process, should ease its ban on converting foreign currency loans into hryvnia for businesses. This opinion was expressed in an exclusive commentary to UNN by economic expert Ilya Neskhodovsky.

"Businesses need it, they need to function, so all these restrictions should be lifted. The only thing is that they should be lifted gradually so as not to provoke the pent-up demand that has accumulated over the years of war, so that it does not spill over into the foreign exchange market in large volumes at once," the expert said.

According to him, the NBU has been consistently pursuing currency liberalization, and quite a few decisions have already been made to repay debts for previous years for businesses. Therefore, Neskhodovskyi believes that the National Bank will remove all restrictions on transactions with foreign currency and foreign currency assets in a fairly short period of time.

"I believe that the NBU is moving a bit faster in terms of lifting restrictions," the expert says.

It should be noted that experts in their comments to UNN say that the head of the National Bank, Andriy Pyshnyi, may not cancel the ban on the conversion of foreign currency loans for business, but allow banks to resolve this issue individually. Such a move by the NBU governor will definitely not go unnoticed, as it will improve relations between banks and clients and increase confidence in the banking sector.

Context

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Ukrainian business has demonstrated resilience and readiness to quickly adjust to current challenges.

In the case of the ban on converting foreign currency loans into hryvnia, Ukrainian businesses often resort to unpopular steps to stay afloat and avoid losing everything.

One of the Ukrainian businesses that has a foreign currency loan that dates back to 2006 is the owners of the Gulliver shopping center in Kyiv. By the way, at the time of the loan, the company that received the loan had other owners. The crises of 2008 and 2014 dealt an irreparable blow to businesses that were lent in foreign currency. This led to the fact that the current owners of Gulliver were forced to restructure their debt in 2020. However, they were unable to convert the loan into hryvnia.