The Bank of Russia reports people tend to be less interested in the operations on the foreign currency market in the second half of the year, whereas in February-May 2007, the supply of foreign currency exceeded the demand greatly, since individuals kept selling the U.S. dollars they had. Even now, people are still trying to gradually get rid of their foreign currency, selling more cash to the banks than buying it.

According to the Bank of Russia’s statistical data, this ever-increasing supply of foreign currency in cash has nothing to do with the seasonal variations. SKB-Bank’s Deposits Director Denis Belogurov believes customers have been doing away with their dollars and euros because their exchange rates are not at all as attractive in comparison with the ruble as they once used to be. Using dollars in this country is no longer a reliable and convenient way of investing one’s resources or a way of making large payments, as was the case before. Moreover, the inflation growth has been slowing down lately, which makes the Russian rubles and ruble deposits much more appealing in terms of investments, Mr. Belogurov says.

The Central Bank of Russia reports customers have bought $5.7 billion worth of foreign cash from Russian banks and sold $6.2 billion worth of foreign cash to them this May.