Ukraine's suffering currency drops 9 percent, national bank imposes capital controls

Ukraine's economy, which has been badly hit by more than a year of crisis, has suffered another blow with a sharp drop in the national currency, the hryvnia.

On Monday, the hryvnia was trading about 9 percent below its level last week. In all, the currency has lost about 70 percent in the past year.

Ukraine's national bank on Monday announced that payments in foreign currencies would be capped at $500,000 without letters of credit from foreign banks, a move to stem capital outflows that would weaken the currency further.