It looks like the Russians haven’t abandoned foreign exchange, although they no longer view it as the store of value.
Photo: Sergey Mikheev
| Other Photos |
 |
|
 |
Stock of Laid-Aside Foreign Exchange Won’t Run Dry
The Russians laid aside some $21 billion as of December 31, 2007, shows the RF International Investment Position Table that the CBR renews on its web from time to time. The currency reserves of non-financial sector lowered by $2.9 billion in the first half-year, according to the first estimate of payment balance that the CBR released Friday. So, the nation had some $18.1 billion as the foreign-exchange stockpile as of July 1, 2008.
Of interest is that the amount was relatively the same in late 2006, when the nation had $18.6 billion on hand. The economy’s de-dollarization, which progress is evident not only because of the payment balance but also because of reduction in number of foreign exchange offices was to narrow the foreign-exchange stockpile of the nation up to the actual extinction. But it hasn’t happened so far for some reason.
It appears no one knows the exact amount of foreign exchange that the nation has on hand, said Mikhail Khromov from the Bank of Moscow. The U.S. research centers gave $80 billion as of 2003 through 2005, while the CBR data signals it could be roughly $50 billion. Anyway, it isn’t the time of 1990s nowadays, and the cash foreign-exchange accounts for one-digit percent of the overall savings.
Less foreign-exchange deposits and cash foreign exchange, the population had some 8.07 trillion ruble (roughly $340 billion) in June of 2008, according to Russia’s Federal Statistics Service, Rosstat. It looks like the Russians haven’t abandoned the foreign exchange, although they no longer view it as the store of value.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of July 08, 2008
|
|
|
