In August, Belarus lost $ 1 billion savings in banks and 15% of gold reserves

In August, Belarusians took more than $ 1 billion from banks - per month, the volume of savings of citizens decreased by 8% in currency and 21% in Belarusian rubles, the country's National Bank said. The authorities did not lag behind - during the same month they spent 15% of Belarusian gold and foreign exchange reserves.

What's happened

On September 1, the volume of foreign currency savings in accounts and deposits amounted to $ 6.48 billion - in a month it decreased by 8.8%. According to the statistics of the National Bank, this is a record outflow of currency from Belarusian banks since 2003.

Citizens took not only dollars and euros, but also the national currency - in the amount of 975.4 million Belarusian rubles, or $ 379.4 million. This is a record outflow since 2016. The remains on the card and current deposit accounts last month decreased by 704.6 million Belarusian rubles (-21%), and from urgent deposits, customers withdrew 270.8 million (–5.5%).

RBC writes that, according to Fitch, at the end of the first half of 2020, up to 60% of the obligations of Belarusian banks accounted for customer deposits. And if the National Bank of Belarus can provide ruble liquidity, then the regulator cannot supply banks with enough currency due to modest reserves. The latter as of September 1 amounted to $ 7.45 billion, decreasing by a month by $ 1.4 billion (-15%). A decrease in the level of international backup assets according to the results of August, according to the National Bank, is due to the sale of foreign currency at the auction.

At the end of August, Alexander Lukashenko assured that even against the backdrop of protests, the country did not began to use its gold and foreign exchange reserves. “People want to take their money or currency - please take it. We have absolutely enough reserves to keep an acceptable course for us at an acceptable level, ”he said.

What is important to know

A month after the election on August 9, the Belarusian ruble fell by 8.4% - from 2.4482 to 2.6558 rubles per dollar. Since the beginning of the year, the ruble has already lost 21%to the dollar.

In the metabolic points of Belarus, since the end of August there has been a lack of currency, which the population is buying up, saving savings from devaluation. Not only dollars and euros, but also Russian rubles began to disappear in banks. Lukashenko traditionally explained this by the machinations of the opposition - "Already openly, our internal villains call to destabilize the financial market."

Belarusians so actively wanted to pick up money from banks that the latter had to urgently raise bets on deposits. So, by the first week of September, the rates for short irrevocable deposits, from which it is impossible to withdraw funds ahead of schedule, overcame the bar with 15%, and in some banks exceeded 20% per annum.