Ukraine's foreign exchange reserves increased substantially in May, ending a 12-month downward trend, Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk said Tuesday.
"The foreign exchange reserves stood at around 18 billion U.S. dollars," Yatsenyuk told the parliament.
The monthly increase was attributed to huge loans, which Ukraine has obtained from international lenders.
In May, the East European country received its first emergency rescue fund worth 3.2 billion dollars from the International Monetary Fund, obtained 1 billion dollars in loan guarantees from the United States and got 750 million dollars of budget support from the World Bank.
From January through April, Ukraine's foreign reserves fell 30.3 percent to 14.226 billion dollars, their lowest level ever.h The Ukrainian government aims to increase the country's foreign reserves to 19.2 billion dollars by the end of this year.