Iosub: People fear to keep money in roubles
Alpari financial analyst Vadzim Iosub has expressed his opinion in an interview with Euroradio.
According to the National Bank, the population bought $380 million in October. The demand for foreign currency has been exceeding the sale for five months on end.
There are economic and psychological reasons for it, the expert said.
Vadzim Iosub: "The average wage kept increasing and exceeded the increase of the work efficiency a lot. The population kept getting more money but the number of Belarusian goods and services they could buy with it did not increase.”
That is why citizens bought imported goods or foreign currency.
The other reason is psychological, Iosub noted: people are waiting for devaluation. Belarusians have started changing their bank accounts to foreign currency despite the high interest rates for Belarusian roubles (50%).
Iosub: “The psychological factor is high devaluation expectations observed since June. The process continued through October. People are scared to save money in Belarusian roubles. They avoid Belarusian roubles and buy foreign currency.”
The mass buying of foreign currency may lead to devaluation, Alyaksandr Lukashenka claimed recently.
Photo: uvaga.by
