Low balances at correspondent accounts lead to no ruble deficit - 14 January, 2003

The balances at correspondent accounts of Russian commercial banks went down by the beginning of business day today again. This reduction came to more than 5bn rubles (about $157m) in Russia and almost 6bn rubles (about $189m) in the Moscow region. The balances at correspondent accounts have been falling for four days in a row, starting on January 9. The fall in ruble balances over these days totaled more than 40bn rubles (about $1.26bn) in Russia and almost 34bn rubles (about $1.07bn) in Moscow and the Moscow region to less than 70bn rubles (about $2.2bn) and a little more than 35bn rubles (about $1.11bn) in Russia and Moscow respectively today. These figures were the lowest over the past several months. However, the minimal volume of balances did not result in a ruble deficit on the Russian currency market or the worsening of the ruble liquidity at banks, at least in the first half of the day. The current one-day ruble credit rates, which do not surpass 3-4 percent, testify that banks do not suffer from a deficit of ruble resources.