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Individuals’ rubel deposits decrease in December while foreign currency deposits rise

December saw a decrease of 823 billion rubels in individuals’ bank deposits in Belarusian rubels and an increase of the equivalent of two trillion rubels in foreign currency deposits, according to BelaPAN’s survey.

The rubel deposits totaled 33,017.9 billion and the foreign currency deposits amounted to the equivalent of 69,320.6 billion rubels, respectively, as of January 1, 2014, compared with 33,841.8 billion and 67,286.6 billion rubels, respectively, a month earlier.

The departmental head of a commercial bank told BelaPAN that a large number of deposit agreements had expired in the final week of the year, three times more than on an average week. Instead of extending their agreements, individuals normally either withdrew their deposits or converted them into foreign currency ones.

The banker suggested that the outflow of rubel deposits had been due to devaluation fears amid the weakening of the national currency.

The Belarusian rubel lost 17 percent of its value against the US dollar as a result of a currency devaluation in January 2009.