Russians start actively purchasing dollars and euros

Russian citizens are purchasing dollars and euros, the demand for the currencies has increased by a third, Kommersant reports.

Experts believe that if a negative scenario should occur, the events of 2008 may repeat themselves.

The country’s largest banks has registered an increase of retail purchases of currencies by 30-40% in the last two weeks, the head of the Promsvyazbank section for monetary operations and the commodity market, Kiril Grishanov, said. Alpha-Bank noted an increase of 15-20%, Uralsib, OTP-bank, Uniastrumbank – of 30%.

The demand for dollars is 1.5 times greater than that for euros.

Less stable markets in regions have caused interest in purchasing currencies for the population, the President of Uniastrumbank, Yevgeny Tutkevich, said.

The dollar rate started growing in early August. The dollar increased in price by 16% and reached 32 rubles, according to the Moscow Central Stock Exchange.