Russians reduced purchases of foreign currency by more than 4 times over the quarter – Kommersant

In the second quarter of 2023, purchases of foreign currency by Russians decreased by more than four times compared to the previous quarter, to RUB 62 billion. from 256 billion rubles. About it says in the “Overview of key indicators of professional participants in the securities market” of the Central Bank.

The regulator explained the reduction in net purchases of foreign currency by the weakening of the ruble. At the same time, net sales of US dollars on the exchange market amounted to 19 billion rubles, net purchases of euros – 76 billion rubles.

At the same time, the Central Bank noted that despite the excess of foreign currency purchases over sales, the currency balances on the accounts of individuals in dollar terms continued to decline, since the purchased currency was in foreign accounts (including for paying for goods and services).

As stated in the review, the interest in the yuan on the part of individuals is explained by arbitrage transactions. “In particular, a number of large market participants cannot conduct transactions on the Moscow Exchange in the currencies of unfriendly countries due to sanctions, which led to a decrease in the liquidity of the US dollar and the euro and an increase in the liquidity of the yuan,” the Central Bank said.

On August 15, the Central Bank raised the key rate immediately by 3.5 percentage points to 12% due to the weakening of the ruble. So, August 14, dollar exceeded 101 rubles, euro – 110 rubles. currencies set March 2022 highs. After the decision of the Central Bank, the dollar decreased up to 95 rubles / $. Today, September 4, it was at the level of 96.81 rubles/$.

Anastasia Larina