(Add comment from a central bank adviser)
KIEV, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Ukraine's central bank has sold $3 billion on the interbank market since January to support the hryvnia currency, which in recent days has been slipping towards historic lows, a central bank official said on Tuesday.
A central bank adviser said separately that the current account was in positive territory in January for the first time in almost three years as imports dropped.
According to central bank data, it sold $1.6 billion in January, compared to $2.8 billion in December. Foreign currency reserves stood at $28.8 billion as of Jan. 31 compared to $31.5 billion at the end of December.
"How should we increase intervention? We have sold $3 billion this year, and $10 billion in the fourth quarter (of last year)," First Deputy Chairman Anatoly Shapovalov told journalists. The hryvnia has slipped in the past week, quoted at 9.24-9.38 to the dollar, close to a historic low of $9.5-10/$ reached in December.
Dealers said trading was thin with virtually no dollars on the market after the central bank changed rules limiting its sale of the dollar only to banks that traded the hryvnia at a daily average rate.
They also said the central bank may be running out of reserves it is allowed to use for intervention after the IMF failed to give a portion of a $16.4 billion loan because certain conditions had not been met.
The falling hryvnia has made exports attractive while a sharp economic slowdown has hit demand for imports, all of which has helped bring the current account into the black at $467 million, central bank adviser Valery Lytvytsky told Reuters.
He said imports fell 50.7 percent in January year on year, while exports fell 32.7 percent, helping to bring about a positive trade balance. (Reporting by Yuri Kulikov and Natalya Zinets); writing by Sabina Zawadzki; editing by Victoria Main and Jason Neely)