UrBC, Moscow, November 13, 2018. Russia’s Central Bank carried a report on its website stating which sectors of the national economy rely most heavily on the below-the-radar-cashing-in-of-money services: these are the wholesale and retail trade sector (sale of construction goods and industrial commodities amounts to 20% and that of consumer goods to 13% of the shadow market), the building industry (30%), the service sector (21%), production sector (9%), and logistics (6%).

53% of all questionable transactions relating to cashing in of money performed in the first half of the year all pertain to private customers’ accounts; 42% of transactions pertain to business accounts; and 4% to sole traders’ accounts. Only 1% of suspicious-looking transactions have to do with security deals.

As for the questionable transactions where money gets transferred abroad, advance payments on imported goods (28% of all transactions of this kind) make up the largest share of all money transfers.