MOSCOW, July 07. /ITAR-TASS/. The net outflow of private foreign capital from Russia has reached about $80 billion, Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said on Tuesday.
“Unfortunately, we still have quite negative capital account results,” Ulyukayev said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“The net outflow of private foreign capital amounted to about $80 billion. These are mostly the results of the first quarter, when a large number of deposits held both by households and businesses were converted into foreign currency deposits and even simply into foreign currency cash to the tune of about $20 billion,” Ulyukayev said.
Putin specified, “Does this mean that the money has not gone, anywhere as rubles were simply converted into foreign currency?”
Ulyukayev confimed that “this money has undoubtedly remained in the economy".
The minister added that the regulator’s statistics were based on the principle of the currency denomination rather than the residence principle. “That is why, capital outflow has been registered only from this point of view while these funds have actually remained with the population and business,” the minister said.