Russian money supply registered a month-on-month decline for the first time in 18 months after a rise in capital flight following a mini-banking crisis in July, data showed on Monday.
M2 - cash in circulation and on rouble accounts - fell 1.4 percent to 3,635 billion roubles on August 1 from the previous month, the Russian central bank said on its Website (www.cbr.ru).
"There were jitters after the banking crisis and money moved out," said Aton brokerage chief economist Peter Westin.
Eight lenders have been forced to close since May as savers pulled money out of deposit accounts on fears of a repeat of Russia's 1998 financial crisis, but banking sector jitters have since subsided.
A relatively slow upward trend in foreign reserves despite high oil prices and a slowly weakening rouble both also point to funds moving out of the country.
However, in year-on-year terms, money supply rose 37.3 percent as Russia continues to re-monetise its economy and the central bank seeks to offset upward pressure on the rouble by buying dollars on the forex market.
That has raised some fears inflation may get stuck at double-digit levels, although Westin played those down, saying the amount of money in circulation in Russia remained very low by international standards.
"Money supply to GDP is somewhere in the region of 20 percent, which is ridiculously low compared to other countries," he said.
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