Russians in July took out another $ 6 billion from the country

Since the beginning of the year, capital outflow has reached $ 34.9 billion, which is 1.5 times more than in the seven months of last year. In January-July 2019, the Russians took out $ 22.8 billion from the country, finanz.ru writes.

At the same time, the inflow of foreign currency into the country for seven months decreased by half compared to last year - to $ 24.6 billion. Moreover, most of these funds - $ 21.7 billion, the Russian economy received in the first quarter. Over the past four months, capital inflows amounted to only $ 2.9 billion, while outflows were almost six times higher ($ 18.1 billion). The trade surplus contracted in July, but capital outflows remained three times higher.

The Central Bank covers the difference by selling foreign currency from the National Wealth Fund on the market. From April to July, 14.7 billion dollars have already been sold.

Analysts attribute the deterioration of the balance of foreign exchange flows to unfavorable conditions for Russian exports: the fall in oil and gas prices, and a reduction in the supply of resources. Against this background, capital outflow leads to a weakening of the ruble, says Dmitry Dolgin, chief economist at ING for Russia and the CIS. In July, the ruble lost another 3.9% against the dollar. Promsvyazbank predicts that the ruble will remain weak at least until the end of the year. Raiffeisenbank notes that while the capital outflow is covered by bank reserves, they are also rapidly decreasing, having “lost weight” almost 2.3 times since the beginning of the year.