Banks increase deposits at CBR by 130% in Feb to 6-month high
MOSCOW. March 19 (Interfax) - Russian banks placed 6.865 trillion rubles in deposits at the Central Bank in February, 130% more than the 2.978 trillion rubles deposited in January and the highest amount since last July, when deposits reached 9.299 trillion rubles, the Central Bank reported on its website.
Due to liquidity problems, since last October banks had been depositing no more than 3 trillion rubles with the Central Bank per month. They deposited 3.932 trillion rubles last September and 5.983 trillion in August.
Data on bank borrowing from the Central Bank also point to an easing of the liquidity crunch that began at the end of last summer.
Banks took out 21.8 billion rubles in loans backed by non-market assets in February, less than a tenth of the 238.8 billion rubles they borrowed in January and 15 times less than the December figure of 320.6 billion rubles.
This type of Central Bank lending in February fell to its lowest point since last September, when banks borrowed 1.1 billion rubles.