Page 43 - RusRPTJul19

5.2.2 Current account dynamics
Russia's current account of the balance of payments posted a surplus of $48.7bn in January-May 2019, expanding by $1.8bn year-on-year, according to the preliminary data by the Central Bank of Russia (CBR).
In the reporting period private sector capital outflow reached $35.2bn, doubling y/y from $18.9bn for the same period of 2018. Russia's international reserves increased by $28bn.
In quarter-on-quarter terms, simultaneous increase of the current account surplus and increase in the capital outflow "implies that there was either a quite significant narrowing of the current account surplus in May (to just $3.2bn) with almost no capital outflow or - what we think more likely - a revision of previous estimates," Sberbank CIB commented on June 13.
"We think the reported $32.8bn current account surplus in 1Q19 could have been revised downward," the bank believes.
The CBR commented that capital outflow in January-May was mostly due to "banking and other organisations purchasing foreign assets, other than the change in foreign liabilities, which remained minimal." In 2018 capital outflow from Russian jumped to $63bn from $25bn in 2017.
43 RUSSIA Country Report July 2019 www.intellinews.com