Russia's foreign reserves narrowed by $13.4 billion to $14.8 billion (depending on the data used by the CBR) for the period of less than a month. The photo shows CBR CEO Sergei Ignatiev.
Photo: Dmitry Dukhanin
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Some $5bn Flew Out in August
Some $5 billion flew out of the country in August, according to preliminary estimate of the CBR CEO Sergei Ignatiev. The amount is two-/three-fold less than the economic analysts apprehended and could be based on yet unpublished data on the state of foreign economy. What's more, it probably explains the relative easiness with which the CBR allows Russia's ruble to depreciate to bi-currency basket.
"Under the most preliminary estimate, the outflow was roughly $5 billion," Interfax quoted the CBR CEO Sergei Ignatiev as saying. The estimate of the banking chief is based on the movement of foreign reserves; the CBR announced yesterday they equaled $582.5 billion as of August 29, having widened by $1 billion over a week.
Russia's foreign stockpile amounted to $597.3 billion on August 1, judging by the weekly data of CBR, but equaled $595.9 billion, according to the monthly information. Anyway, the decline of less than a month ranged from $13.4 billion to $14.8 billion.
Ignatiev gave the outflow details in Astrakhan-city of Russia, where Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is on the working visit now. A day before, Putin forecasted the net inflow of foreign capital to be from $30 billion to $40 billion in 2008, making clear that the foreign capital inflow wasn't the current priority for Russia.
The August decline in foreign reserves could be blamed on two factors – the dollar appreciation and the capital outflow. The rate was $1.56 for €1 on August 1 but already $1.47 on August 29 (5.7 percent appreciation of the U.S. dollar). The dollar estimate of Russia's euro-denominated reserves (about 40 percent, i.e. around $250 billion) was to go down by roughly the same percent. The drop was the most accelerated August 8 through 15, when the pace of dollar's appreciation was the highest, same as the speed of the capital outflow fueled by the war in South Ossetia. Some $10 billion to $20 billion left the country those days, according to various estimates.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 05, 2008
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