Fearing of banks and hiding money: Russians go to cash

Yekaterina Maksimova

From the data of the all-Russian survey "Levada-Center" (* recognized as Inogent) it follows that in September the number of respondents who consider the current time to be bad in order to make savings increased sharply. This decline is larger than the fall caused by the pandemic in 2020.

"In late September and early October, consumer and savings moods were determined not by economic, but by political events: the partial mobilization announced in Russia. This event had a strong impact on the moods and feelings of Russians, which, in turn, influenced the dynamics of economic indicators. Despite the fact that sentiment is not a determining factor in the formation of economic assessments, the current deterioration in savings sentiment is primarily due to a general increase in anxiety in society," the authors of the survey concluded.

According to a sociological survey, in February 2022, only 26% of respondents believed that savings should be kept in cash rubles, now more than a third of respondents think so. Since February, the number of citizens who prefer to keep their savings in foreign currency has also sharply decreased. If in February 11% of respondents preferred to keep dollars and euros in bank accounts, now only 3% of respondents.

About half of Russians (55%) believe that their financial reserves are equal to one monthly family income. A quarter of respondents (24%) indicated that they do not even have such modest savings. 10% of respondents have a "safety cushion", which, in case of loss of income, can stretch for 2-3 months.

The most thrifty - have savings - were Russians under the age of 40 years. There are also slightly more owners of savings among respondents with a high professional status - managers, managers (78%).

The survey was conducted from 22 to 28 September.

Novye Izvestia reported that in September, Russians were withdrawing cash en masse. According to the Central Bank, the outflow of cash from the banking system since September 21 amounted to 754 billion rubles.

So, on September 21, the demand of Russians for cash amounted to 14 billion rubles. Already on September 22, citizens withdrew over 132 billion. The excitement continued on September 23: on this day, bank customers took 114 billion rubles in cash. In the following days, demand remained, but began to gradually decline.