Over the past six months (February–July), the amount of cash withdrawn from banks reached 2.543 trillion rubles (27.814 billion euros) – an amount nearly equal to two annual budgets of the Moscow region (1.3 trillion rubles or 14.21 billion euros) and almost five annual budgets of the Krasnoyarsk Territory (527 billion rubles or 5.76 billion euros).
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In other words, 480 tons of cash “flowed out” of banks, or the equivalent of 48 classic “Kamaz” truckloads.
Central Bank statistics show that in July money “flowed” out of the banking system for 28 out of 30 days. The largest withdrawals were recorded during the first two weeks of the month, when financial institutions were almost daily emptied of 30–60 billion rubles (328.1 million euros – 656.3 million euros).
“This is an absolute monthly record for this year and generally the highest July figure in history,” said Sberbank Vice President Taras Skvortsov on Wednesday. According to him, the cash “leakage” has become “one of the main problems” for the banking system and has already caused a shortage of ruble liquidity in some banks.
According to Sberbank’s forecast, the volume of cash in circulation could increase by 3.8 trillion rubles (41.58 billion euros) by the end of the year. This will be a historic record for Russia – surpassing the 2020 pandemic figures.
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According to T. Skvortsov, businesses heavily affected by tax increases are massively switching to cash and “black” payment systems.
“We see a sharp decrease, for example, in cash transfers to collection services. Previously, when a client paid in cash, the money returned to the bank through collection services. Now this is not the case – the money stays with the clients, who apparently use it to pay salaries and settle with their partners,” the banker explained.
Economist Nikolai Korzhenevsky did not rule out the possibility that such massive cash “leakage” may indicate that people who know something inside the country are withdrawing money from the banking system. This refers to those who might know that “something very negative will happen in Russia – some escalation, war, or broader geopolitical changes.”
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