"The currency didn't arrive." Billions of dollars of ruZZia's export earnings are "stuck" abroad due to sanctions.

The tightening of US sanctions and the mass refusal of banks to make payments to Russian companies have deprived the economy of billions of dollars in foreign exchange earnings, according to the ruZZian Central Bank.
At the end of March, ruZZia earned $39.6 billion from exports, which is 30% more than in February and almost 40% more than in January, the Central Bank said in a monthly report on the country's balance of payments.

At the same time, the "foreign assets" of ruZZian companies jumped by $15.5 billion, an indicator that includes, among other things, funds in foreign accounts. This means that although exports have nominally grown, "the currency has not reached the corresponding volumes," said Yegor Susin, managing director of GPB Private Banking.

In January and February, businesses were accumulating foreign currency abroad at a rate of $3-4 billion per month. In March, the growth rate of foreign assets accelerated by 5 times: more than $10 billion remained in bank accounts abroad in excess of the usual amounts.

"Goods are exported, but the money does not arrive," says Evgeny Suvorov, an economist at CenterCreditBank and author of MMI. As a result, "accounting" indicators and "real" export earnings are very different, he points out. Although the Central Bank reports a record trade surplus for more than a year ($16.7 billion in March), in fact, almost every fourth dollar for goods sold abroad is "stuck" in foreign accounts.

Bank problems increased sharply at start of the year, as almost all major banks refuse to transfer to Putinistan. According to Reuters, even payments for oil and petroleum products, a key source of export earnings for the economy, which account for every second dollar of export revenues, fell under the financial blockade. Banks in Turkey and the UAE, the main anti-sanctions hubs of Russian business, began to close accounts and block transactions, followed by Chinese banks, including large and state-owned ones.

In addition to exporters, the problems also affect importers, points out Suvorov from CenterCreditBank: the supply of foreign goods to Z-landia collapsed by 18% year-on-year. "This is a dangerous situation," the expert warns, "As reserves are depleted, there will be a threat of shortages with a subsequent acceleration of inflation."

Source

@freerussia_report