How the NBU fixed the hryvnia's official rate during the war

The The National Bank of Ukraine, the central bank of Ukraine.Source: Deutsche Bundesbank, Metadata on the Exchange rate statisticsOpens in a new tab (NBU) sets the hryvnia's official exchange rate every business day. On the first day of the full-scale invasion, February 24, 2022, it fixed the rate, and the rate stayed fixed, at two levels, until October 3, 2023.Figures computed by FXtab from:National Bank of Ukraine, Official hryvnia exchange rate and the accounting price of investment metalsOpens in a new tabGo to the list of sources

Which rate, and what it is for

The NBU's Regulation 148 sets out the calculation. The official UAH/USD exchange rate is taken from the The market in which banks trade with each other; foreign exchange is one of the things they trade.Source: Deutsche Bundesbank, GlossaryOpens in a new tab: all TOD, TOM and SPOT deals in US dollars of USD 100,000 to USD 5 million that banks concluded with other banks and with the NBU that day and reported by 3:00 p.m. The NBU first removes the deals whose rate differs from the median by more than 2%, then those more than two standard deviations from the mean, and takes the weighted average of the rest, weighted by each deal's volume. The rate is published not later than at 3:30 p.m. on the day of setting/calculationSource: National Bank of Ukraine, Regulation On Setting the Official Exchange Rate of the Hryvnia against Foreign Currencies and Calculating the Reference Exchange Rate of the Hryvnia against the U.S. Dollar and Accounting Prices for Investment MetalsOpens in a new tabGo to the list of sources and takes effect the next business day following the day of settingSource: National Bank of Ukraine, Regulation On Setting the Official Exchange Rate of the Hryvnia against Foreign Currencies and Calculating the Reference Exchange Rate of the Hryvnia against the U.S. Dollar and Accounting Prices for Investment MetalsOpens in a new tabGo to the list of sources; a rate set on the last business day of a week holds over the weekend.

What the history shows

The NBU's series of official rates begins on September 2, 1996, at 176.1 hryvnias per 100 US dollars. Before the war, 4 periods of more than 90 days pass without a change; the two longest are 505 hryvnias per 100 US dollars from July 21, 2005 to May 21, 2008 (1,036 days) and 799.3 hryvnias per 100 US dollars from July 9, 2012 to February 6, 2014 (578 days).Figures computed by FXtab from:National Bank of Ukraine, Official hryvnia exchange rate and the accounting price of investment metalsOpens in a new tabGo to the list of sources

The rate rises by more than 10% from one day to the next 3 times: 12.0% on September 8, 1998, from 225 hryvnias per 100 US dollars to 252 hryvnias per 100 US dollars; 28.5% on February 6, 2015, from 1,799.9763 hryvnias per 100 US dollars to 2,313.058 hryvnias per 100 US dollars; and 25.0% on July 21, 2022, from 29.2549 hryvnias per US dollar to 36.5686 hryvnias per US dollar.Figures computed by FXtab from:National Bank of Ukraine, Official hryvnia exchange rate and the accounting price of investment metalsOpens in a new tabGo to the list of sources On February 5, 2015 the NBU announced scrapping the practice of holding foreign exchange auctions (effective from February 5, 2015) and setting the indicative hryvnia exchange rateSource: National Bank of Ukraine, National Bank of Ukraine modifies the monetary policy framework while tightening the monetary policy stanceOpens in a new tabGo to the list of sources: The hryvnia exchange rate will be set by banks based on the objective parameters of market demand and supply.Source: National Bank of Ukraine, National Bank of Ukraine modifies the monetary policy framework while tightening the monetary policy stanceOpens in a new tabGo to the list of sources The official rate in force the next day was 28.5% higher.Figures computed by FXtab from:National Bank of Ukraine, Official hryvnia exchange rate and the accounting price of investment metalsOpens in a new tabGo to the list of sources From 2015 until the full-scale invasion the NBU conducted its monetary policy through a full-fledged inflation targeting (IT) regime with a floating exchange rateSource: National Bank of Ukraine, About Monetary PolicyOpens in a new tabGo to the list of sources.

What happened in the war

On February 24, 2022, under martial law, the NBU's Resolution No. 18 imposed measures that suspend the operation of Ukraine’s FX market, except for FX sales by customersSource: National Bank of Ukraine, How Ukraine’s Banking System and FX Market Will Work from 24 February 2022 Under Martial Law Throughout UkraineOpens in a new tabGo to the list of sources and fix the official exchange rate for 24 February 2022Source: National Bank of Ukraine, How Ukraine’s Banking System and FX Market Will Work from 24 February 2022 Under Martial Law Throughout UkraineOpens in a new tabGo to the list of sources. That night it fixed the official rates of the hryvnia against foreign currencies at the levels at which they stood on 24 February 2022Source: National Bank of Ukraine, NBU Makes Changes to Resolution No. 18 On the Operation of the Banking System Under Martial Law Dated 24 February 2022Opens in a new tabGo to the list of sources, and suspended, until a special decision, the calculation of the reference value of the hryvnia exchange rate against the U.S. dollarSource: National Bank of Ukraine, NBU Makes Changes to Resolution No. 18 On the Operation of the Banking System Under Martial Law Dated 24 February 2022Opens in a new tabGo to the list of sources. The NBU describes the step as a switch to an exchange rate pegSource: National Bank of Ukraine, About Monetary PolicyOpens in a new tabGo to the list of sources. The series holds 29.2549 hryvnias per US dollar for 147 days, from February 24, 2022 to July 20, 2022. The reference rate's last value before the invasion is 29.1506, on February 23, 2022; the NBU's data for February 24, 2022 and February 25, 2022 carries no value, and the next value is 36.5744, on October 3, 2023.Figures computed by FXtab from:National Bank of Ukraine, Official hryvnia exchange rate and the accounting price of investment metalsOpens in a new tabGo to the list of sources

On July 21, 2022 the NBU changed the official exchange rate of the hryvnia against U.S. dollar by 25%, to UAH/USD 36.5686, effective 9 a.m. 21 July 2022Source: National Bank of Ukraine, NBU Fixes Official UAH/USD Exchange Rate at a New Level and Takes Additional Measures to Balance the FX Market and Support Resilience of Economy during the WarOpens in a new tabGo to the list of sources, and added: The official UAH/USD exchange rate remains fixed.Source: National Bank of Ukraine, NBU Fixes Official UAH/USD Exchange Rate at a New Level and Takes Additional Measures to Balance the FX Market and Support Resilience of Economy during the WarOpens in a new tabGo to the list of sources The series holds 36.5686 hryvnias per US dollar for 440 days, to October 3, 2023.Figures computed by FXtab from:National Bank of Ukraine, Official hryvnia exchange rate and the accounting price of investment metalsOpens in a new tabGo to the list of sources

On October 2, 2023 the NBU announced that it is moving to a regime of managed flexibility of the exchange rateSource: National Bank of Ukraine, NBU Introduces Managed Flexibility of Exchange Rate to Strengthen Resilience of the economy and the FX MarketOpens in a new tabGo to the list of sources: the official rate will be shaped by the exchange rate used for transactions in the interbank FX market instead of being set by the NBU under Resolution 18, as has been the case since 24 February 2022Source: National Bank of Ukraine, NBU Introduces Managed Flexibility of Exchange Rate to Strengthen Resilience of the economy and the FX MarketOpens in a new tabGo to the list of sources. It would significantly limit exchange-rate fluctuations, preventing both a significant weakening and a significant strengthening of the hryvniaSource: National Bank of Ukraine, NBU Introduces Managed Flexibility of Exchange Rate to Strengthen Resilience of the economy and the FX MarketOpens in a new tabGo to the list of sources. The first changed rate is 36.5901 hryvnias per US dollar on October 4, 2023. Since then the rate has stayed between 36.0143 on November 24, 2023 and 44.9790 on June 11, 2026, and has not changed by more than 0.96% from one day to the next (the largest, on December 29, 2023).Figures computed by FXtab from:National Bank of Ukraine, Official hryvnia exchange rate and the accounting price of investment metalsOpens in a new tabGo to the list of sources

What it means for your money

A household buying dollars does not pay the official rate. The NBU wrote in October 2023 that the ask price in the cash segment of the FX market, where individuals buy and sell foreign currency, will be determined by market supply and demandSource: National Bank of Ukraine, NBU Introduces Managed Flexibility of Exchange Rate to Strengthen Resilience of the economy and the FX MarketOpens in a new tabGo to the list of sources. The NBU publishes, for each business day, the weighted average exchange rate of the cash market's dollar sales, the side its data pairs with households' cash purchases. Against the official rate in force the same day:

in the year before the invasion, the median gap was 0.13% (250 business days);Figures computed by FXtab from:National Bank of Ukraine, Official hryvnia exchange rate and the accounting price of investment metalsOpens in a new tabGo to the list of sources
while the rate was fixed at 29.2549, the median gap was 9.75% (106 business days), and the largest 28.5%, on July 14, 2022: 37.58 hryvnias per dollar in cash, 29.2549 official;Figures computed by FXtab from:National Bank of Ukraine, Official hryvnia exchange rate and the accounting price of investment metalsOpens in a new tabGo to the list of sources
while it was fixed at 36.5686, the median gap was 6.70% (316 business days), and the largest 17.0%, on September 22, 2022: 42.78 in cash, 36.5686 official;Figures computed by FXtab from:National Bank of Ukraine, Official hryvnia exchange rate and the accounting price of investment metalsOpens in a new tabGo to the list of sources
under managed flexibility, from October 4, 2023, the median gap has been 0.49% (789 business days), and the largest 4.8%, on November 21, 2023.Figures computed by FXtab from:National Bank of Ukraine, Official hryvnia exchange rate and the accounting price of investment metalsOpens in a new tabGo to the list of sources

While the official rate was fixed, it said little about what a dollar cost in cash. FXtab's Check a quote computes how far a rate you are offered is from the day's official rate.

Sources

Figures as of September 25, 2026, computed by FXtab from the National Bank of Ukraine's open data.