MOSCOW, March 7. /TASS/. Russian banks may post profit worth 1.2-1.5 trillion rubles ($15.9-19.88 bln) in 2023 and 1.2-1.7 trillion rubles ($15.9-22.5 bln) in 2024 as suggested by baseline forecast, according to files released by the Central Bank on Tuesday.

The Russian banking sector will earn more than 1 trillion rubles this year "unless there are new shocks," the regulator noted.

"Nevertheless, it is substantially lower than the result in 2021 (2.4 trillion rubles) as we expect expenses on reserves to be still quite high considering a considerable volume of restructured loans and gradual maturation of problems," the Bank of Russia explained.

In 2022, Russia's banking sector posted profit worth 203 bln rubles ($2.9 bln), down 12-fold in annual terms due to a sharp increase in reserves and losses from foreign currency revaluation that were partially offset by earnings from forex transactions. "Nevertheless the result is better than initial more pessimistic expectations," the regulator said.