Ruble credit rates tumble

At the beginning of business today, ruble balances at commercial bank correspondent accounts increased considerably. Across the country, the growth was RUR32bn (about $1.01bn); in the Moscow region, the advance amounted to over RUR29bn (about $912.40m). This morning, balances at commercial bank correspondent accounts reached RUR170bn (about $5.35bn) throughout Russia and RUR112.5bn (about $3.54bn) in Moscow. Such a significant amount of ruble balances, as well as such a considerable one-day advance, has been registered for the first time since the beginning of January 2002, which was twelve month ago.

This led to an elimination of a ruble deficit noticeable at the end of 2002. Consequently, the situation with ruble liquidity improved significantly. The absence of ruble resources at commercial banks is currently testified to by a minimal level of one-day credit rates below 3 to 4 percent, while on December 31, 2002, one-day ruble credit rates amounted to 15 percent.