Belarusians Eating Up Savings

In September, the outflow of foreign currency deposits was up to five times higher than the inflow of the deposits in the national currency.

The fresh monetary statistics of the National Bank has shown an increasing trend in the deposit market in the previous months. Although the number of deposits in Belarusian rubles increased, it could not compensate for the intensified outflow of foreign currency savings.

As of October 1, the population kept in the banks 2 billion 739,7 million Belarusian rubles. This is 78,6 million (or 3%) more than a month ago. However, given the interest accrued by banks, the situation is a bit more modest.

“In September, the banks were supposed to pay the depositors about 44,1 million (based on the average rate for all fixed-term bank deposits – 19,9% per annum), — senior analyst at Alpari Vadzim Iasub has told tut.by. — Thus, if we do not take into account the interest, the growth of ruble deposits amounted to 34,5 million (or 1,3%).” This is more than last month.

Against this background, the outflow of foreign currency deposits increased. The volume of savings as of October 1 amounted to $7 billion 151 million in the equivalent.

"Compared to the previous month, the volume of foreign currency deposits fell by 72 million, but taking into account the accrued interest (at an average rate – 3,4% per annum), it turns out that the population withdrawn the foreign currency deposits for the sum of $92,5 million," — Vadzim Iasub has counted.

In recalculation on today's exchange rate it turns out that the number of the foreign currency deposits withdrawn by the population is 5 times higher than the number of the ruble deposits brought. "It is obvious that a small portion of foreign currency deposits gets shifted to the ruble, but the bulk of the savings of the citizens go to the exchangers from the banks and spend on current consumption," — the expert has summarized.

We remind that in September Belarusians once again were net sellers of currencies.