Savings of the nation soared by 218 billion rubles in June of 2007 and widened by 1.1 trillion rubles in the first half of this year.
Photo: Yury Martyanov
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Individual Savings Exceed 1/3 GDP
Savings of the nation soared by 218 billion rubles in June of 2007 and widened by 1.1 trillion rubles in the first half of this year, the RF Economic Development and Trade Ministry reported. Calculated from early 2002, the cumulative growth in savings reached 8.5 trillion rubles (nearly $350 billion, or roughly 35 percent of GDP).
This amount represents the growth in savings taken for bank deposits and securities, including the savings in foreign currency, but excludes the worth of real estate. According to the Central Bank of Russia (CBR), individual bank deposits stood at 4.1 trillion rubles as of May 1, 2007, including ruble deposits of 3.5 trillion rubles and foreign exchange deposits accounting for 0.6 trillion rubles. Individual bank deposits amounted to 0.7 trillion rubles in early 2002, i.e. the growth in bank deposits of five years and a half ensured less than a half of the total growth in savings.
Evaluation of individual savings is a well-known difficulty of economists. Under the estimate of Independent Institute of Social Policy, the savings of individuals amounted to 5.8 trillion rubles as of February 2007. The distinctive feature of today’s approach is the minimal role of foreign exchange saved by the population. Individuals have roughly $10 billion in ready cash, according to the CBR.
In this respect, the role of securities owned by the nation is apparently going up. Although the capitalization of Russia’s bond market nears 100 percent of the GDP, i.e. $1 trillion, there are still no methods to precisely evaluate the share of individuals that own securities, including via their entities.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 01, 2007
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