Page 88 - RusRPTSept23

At the same time, 27% of the respondents have no savings at all. Another 6% prefer the dollar, 4% each prefer the euro and other foreign currencies.
Analysts point to a trend of devaluation of savings. According to VTsIOM, the share of Russians with savings in the national currency increased in February 2022 by 8 percentage points compared to January of the same year and has not fallen below 65% since then. At the same time, the share of those who have savings in dollars has decreased. In January 2022, it was 11%.
Despite the decline in the popularity of storing savings in foreign currency, Russians continue to monitor the situation in the foreign exchange market. In July, 58% of respondents followed the dollar exchange rate with varying frequency (+7 percentage points compared to June): 20% of them did it regularly, and 38% did it from time to time.
The Ministry of Finance will retreat from the budget rule in the coming months and refuse to buy foreign currency for oil and gas windfalls, Vedomosti reports, citing sources. This is due to the unwillingness of the authorities to put additional pressure on the ruble. Instead, windfall profits that could be earned as early as August will be used to finance the deficit, which is expected to slow down the pace of use of the NWF. According to the current budget rule, the Ministry of Finance, with the help of the Central Bank, buys yuan and gold from the NWF in situations where oil and gas revenues exceed the base level set for the month. Otherwise, reserves are sold for the amount of the difference between actual receipts and the "base". Additional funds from the sale of oil and gas are expected to be received in August, Vedomosti sources say. But, according to the publication, the authorities will not be buying foreign currency for oil and gas windfalls in the coming months, as the budget rule prescribes.
The structure of the exchange currency market continued changing in Russia and the yuan share moved up to record high 44% in July from 39.8% in June, the Central Bank said in the financial market risk review posted on its website. Further to regular sale and purchase transactions with the foreign exchange as part of the fiscal rule from August 1, 2023 to January 31, 2024, the Bank of Russia will daily sell the yuan amounting to 2.3bn rubles ($23.8mn) from the National Wealth Fund (NWF). The share of "toxic" currencies on the exchange currency market declined from 58.8% in June to 54.4% in July. The share of the yuan in the OTC segment moved up from 18.4% in June to 19.2% in July.
Russians are keeping a record amount of cold, hard cash at hand amid the country's wartime economy. In June, the amount of cash in circulation in Russia hit a record 17.9 trillion rubles, or $187bn, data from the Russian central bank shows. The amount of cash circulating in the Russian economy saw a massive spike from 13.8 trillion rubles in January 2022 to 15.8 trillion rubles in February 2022, coinciding with its invasion of Ukraine, according to
RUSSIA Country Report September 2023 www.intellinews.com