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Kiev - Ukraine's foreign currency reserves were down to just over $7.5bn last year, the lowest level for 10 years and barely enough to cover five weeks of imports, pressured by external debt repayments including to the IMF and to Russia for gas.
The figures from the central bank starkly illustrated the ex-Soviet country's parlous financial state after a tumultuous year in which street protests chased a Moscow-backed leader from power, Russia annexed Crimea and separatist conflict erupted in the east in which more than 4 700 people have been killed.
The central bank said reserves were at $7.533bn as of January 1 showing a fall of 63% over last year, the steepest yearly fall in Ukraine's post-Soviet history.
In December alone, reserves fell 24% from $9.966bn, already a 10-year low, the bank said.
The figures emerged as a team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which has thrown Ukraine a $17bn financial lifeline, continued its work in Kiev to assess long-term prospects for the economy and review the planned reforms by the pro-Western leadership.
The government of Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk expects the visit to unlock three tranches of new and overdue credit, possibly totalling more than $4bn, with the bailout programme possibly being expanded beyond $17bn.
Ukraine has sought to protect its currency reserves levels by not intervening since early November to prop up the national currency the hryvnia whose value has dropped to around 15.7 to the dollar.
But repayment of $14bn of external debt falling due in 2014 took its toll.
This included repayments to the IMF under an old bailout programme, a $1.7 eurobond payment by the state gas company Naftogaz which was guaranteed by the government and $3.1bn worth of outstanding Naftogaz debt to Russia's Gazprom for supplies of natural gas.
"FX reserves have dropped USD 12.9bn over the year - probably a clear indication of the size of the annual financing gap now. They also now represent the lowest level since 2005," Timothy Ash of Standard Bank wrote in a commentary.
Reserves peaked at $38.4bn in April 2011.
