The financial collapse coupled with the ruble depreciation prompted the nation to convert into dollars their ruble deposits.
Photo: Michail Galustov
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Nation Barters Rubles
The financial collapse coupled with the ruble depreciation prompted the nation to convert into dollars their ruble deposits. The September reports of Russia’s banks revealed the decline in ruble deposits and the growth of deposits denominated in foreign currencies. The trend has strengthened in October due to the material appreciation of the U.S. dollar.
According to the data of the CBR and other banks, the aggregate amount of individual deposits lowered by 79.5 billion ruble, or 1.4 percent, during September. The foreign exchange deposits widened by 20.8 billion ruble (+2.7 percent) and the ruble-denominated deposits lost 100.2 billion ruble (-2.1 percent). The share of deposits denominated in foreign exchange soared from 13.5 percent to 14.0 percent.
The U.S. dollar appreciated by 2.8 percent to Russia’s ruble, and euro gained 1 percent. The banks account for their deposits in the national currency and such appreciation could be viewed as one of the reasons of growth of foreign exchange deposits in the overall deposited amount.
But for the better part of the biggest banks, the increase in foreign exchange deposits was significantly above the revaluation triggered by the foreign exchange fluctuations over the reported period. Sberbank led in the absolute growth of foreign exchange deposits, as the nation tends to go to government’s banks in time of the crisis.
“The people set to transferring deposits from rubles to the ones denominated in foreign exchange - from 18 percent as of September 1 to 19.5 percent on October 1 [for the bank system in general],” said VTB 24 CEO Mikhail Zadornov. “The process will accelerate in October,” the top banker predicted, specifying that the transfer of individual and corporate assets into the ones denominated in foreign exchange is underway.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 31, 2008
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