Drop in balances triggers no ruble deficit

In the second half of the day, ruble liquidity of Russian commercial banks has remained favorable, despite today's considerable drop in balances at correspondent accounts. At the beginning of business balances eased back by more than 21bn rubles ($671m) throughout the country and by 19.5bn rubles ($623m) at banks in the Moscow region. This has been the largest decrease in balances since the beginning of the year.

Balances have dropped for the third day in a row. In this period balances throughout the country retreated by almost 36bn rubles ($1.15bn) and by more than 31bn rubles ($990m) at banks in the Moscow region. Nevertheless, the current volume of balances provides for enough ruble resources on the market. In the second half of the day, one-day ruble credit rates have been 1.5-2 percent, which does not exceed 6 percent taking into account the coming weekend.