Cash in hryvnias and dollars in Ukraine: what inflation takes

01What it is

Cash on this page means money that earns nothing: banknotes at home, dollars kept for a rainy day, a card balance on which the bank pays no interest. This is not advice to keep money at home or not to: cash is the baseline here.

The board shows cash as a separate row so that everything else can be compared with it. An option makes sense only if, after Ukrainian tax and inflation, it leaves more than money that simply sits. The cash row follows the currency you choose on the board: hryvnias in the hryvnia view, dollars in the dollar view.

02What it pays now

The nominal return on cash is 0.0%: what you put aside is what you will have. The same holds for dollars: 0.0%.

What changes is not the amount but what it buys. Annual inflation is 10.0% in Ukraine (Source: Державна служба статистики України, Sep 2026) and 3.7% in the US (Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Sep 2026). Those are the figures cash is measured against below.

03After tax and inflation

There is no tax on cash: nothing accrues on money that sits. A currency gain is not taxed either: if you bought dollars cheaper and sold them dearer, Ukraine's Tax Code exempts income from operations with currency, so the rate is 0% (Source: Верховна Рада України, Oct 12, 2026).

The real change in value depends on the currency you hold the money in and the currency you count in. The table shows all four pairs of currencies, and where the exchange rate matters, two cases: a steady rate, and the hryvnia falling by its historical average, 6.0% a year.

Hryvnias that sit idle change in real terms by −9.1% a year: with annual inflation of 10.0%, the same sum buys that much less each year. Dollars lose value more slowly: −3.6% a year, counted in dollars. Counted in hryvnias, dollar cash comes out ahead only while the hryvnia falls: at the historical devaluation it gives −3.7% a year, and if the rate stays flat, the same as hryvnias, −9.1%. Hryvnias counted in dollars give −9.1% a year at the same devaluation.

A devaluation of 6.0% is an assumption, not a forecast. It is the average pace at which the hryvnia fell against the dollar since the end of 2015. A longer stretch, since the end of 2004, gives 10.3%. As a cross-check: had the hryvnia fallen since the end of 2015 exactly as fast as Ukrainian inflation outpaced US inflation, the pace would have been 7.0% a year. The window and the method are in the board's method note.

04Who guarantees it

No one guarantees cash, because there is nothing to guarantee: it is not a debt that a bank or the state owes you, it is the money itself. If banknotes are stolen or burn, no one will replace them.

Money in a bank account or on a card is not cash in this sense: the bank holds it. How Ukraine's Deposit Guarantee Fund repays deposits if a bank fails is explained on the Deposits page.

05How fast you can get out

Cash is already in your hands, so there is nothing to get out of: the money is available at once. That is why an emergency reserve is usually kept in a form you can draw on at any moment.

To switch from hryvnias to dollars or back, you buy or sell currency. A Ukrainian bank or exchange office buys it for less than it sells it, and that gap is your cost on every exchange. The National Bank of Ukraine sets the rules for buying currency during martial law, so check them with your bank.

06Minimum amount

There is no minimum: any amount can serve as the baseline.

07Main risk

The main risk of cash is inflation: the money does not disappear, but each year it buys less. For hryvnias it is also devaluation, if you count in dollars.

• Inflation in hryvnias. At current inflation, the buying power of hryvnias changes by −9.1% a year.
• Inflation in dollars. Dollar cash protects against devaluation but not against US inflation: −3.6% a year in dollars.
• The exchange rate. If the hryvnia strengthens, dollar cash is worth less in hryvnias.
• Loss or theft. No one insures or replaces banknotes kept at home.

08How to buy from Ukraine

There is nothing to buy: cash is what you already have. The real question is how much money should sit idle and how much can work.

1. Work out an emergency reserve: it is kept available at once, even if it loses some value.
2. Decide which currency to keep the reserve in: the one you spend in.
3. Compare the rest with the options on the Where to invest board: every row there can be held against cash.

The article What is inflation? explains how inflation eats into savings and why it differs from person to person.

09Work it out further

• See how much your money will lose over several years in the inflation impact calculator.
• Size your reserve in the emergency fund calculator, and read how to build one in Emergency fund.
• Compare cash with a bank deposit on the Deposits page, and with every option on the Where to invest board.