Since last year’s mobilization, Russians have accumulated more than $105 billion in cash. The data on this account was published by the Central Bank of Russia, which introduced restrictions on the withdrawal of foreign currency by citizens from accounts and deposits.
Although the Kremlin has limited Russians’ access to their foreign-currency savings as much as possible, they have accumulated more than $105 billion in cash since last year’s mobilization. As Rzeczpospolita notes, Russian citizens have not hidden such an amount of foreign currency in cash for at least five years.
The Russians raised $100 billion in two months.
The Russians began to accumulate cash in September last year, that is, from the moment the mobilization was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Already in November, their total amount exceeded 100 billion US dollars. As of February 1, it was already $105.4 billion.
The newspaper points out that these data were made public by the Central Bank of Russia just now, in connection with “obtaining additional information on the statistics of the external sector.”
The newspaper recalls that the Central Bank of Russia introduced restrictions on the withdrawal of foreign currency from accounts and deposits by citizens, limiting the available amount to 10,000 US dollars (or the equivalent in euros). Two days later, the US imposed an embargo on the export of cash dollars to Russia. Russians can also buy dollars and euros in cash, but only those that entered banks after April 9. Restrictions in this area have already been extended twice.
– The growth of cash among the population in the face of restrictions on its withdrawal from bank accounts in Russia means only one thing – the import of banknotes exceeded the export – – says Yegor Susin, managing director of Private Banking of Gazprombank, whose words are quoted by Rzeczpospolita.
– It is possible that part of the transfers abroad, according to the Bank of Russia, returned to the country in the form of foreign currency in cash. Theoretically, it is possible: the transfer of capital abroad, the receipt of currency there and its import into Russia. It is not clear how this was assessed, but perhaps this is some kind of customs declaration data – he adds.
The newspaper notes that the Central Bank of Russia has changed the method of calculating balances on deposits of Russians in banks abroad. As of February 1, the amount of funds amounted to 4.63 trillion rubles, or $66.5 billion. In a month, it increased by $2 billion.
Source: Wprost
I am George Brown, author at Daily News Hack. I mostly cover economy news and I have been doing this for quite some time now. I have a lot of experience in this field and I’m always looking for new opportunities to learn more.
