MINSK, 31 January (BelTA) – The situation on the deposit market is calm. National currency deposits and foreign currency deposits are on the rise. Chairman of the Board of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus (NBRB) Pavel Kallaur made the statement after delivering his report to Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko on 31 January, BelTA has learned.
Pavel Kallaur said: “The situation on the deposit market is calm. We see an increase in deposits in the national currency and foreign ones. The deposits grow by roughly 1.5% per month.”
The NBRB head also described the foreign currency market situation as normal and market-based. “There are geopolitical risks on the world scale, in particular, in the neighboring country of Russia. Everyone understood a long time ago that considering tight economic relations with the Russian Federation, among other things we see certain correlations with the volatility of the exchange rate of the Belarusian ruble and the volatility of the Russian ruble,” he explained. “A normal market situation. Nothing supernatural is going on. There are periods when the ruble is getting weaker and there are periods when it is getting stronger. On the whole, the dynamics specified by forecast documents of the central government and the central bank for the next year remains up-to-date.”
Asked whether one should expect interest rates on deposits to rise, the NBRB head pointed out that everything depends on the overall market situation. Ensuring positive interest rates on deposits is a matter of fundamental importance for the central bank and the banking community. “The market is affected by demand for resources and by the supply of resources. All of it should be set exclusively by a fair price,” the NBRB head is convinced.
The interest rate on fixed-term deposits in Belarusian rubles totaled 16.7% in 2021. “It is a good revenue in real terms. Those, who deposited their money, particularly for a period of over one year, received remarkable income and can be satisfied with their decision to save money in the national currency,” Pavel Kallaur remarked.
He went on saying: “In December 2021 we saw that the banks even slightly reduced interest rates on deposits of individuals. Which means the market is balanced, it has some fair cost of deposits in national currency, which enables savings on acceptable terms. If the inflation situation turns out to be as good as we've projected [within 6% in 2022], we don't expect interest rates on deposits on the market to rise.”
Asked about the possibility of cheaper loans for individual categories such as exporters, the NBRB head said: “It is necessary to always support exporters. But loans have to be based on the market conditions first of all. If we want to support some areas, for instance, the export of small and medium enterprises, then the Development Bank of the Republic of Belarus offers the relevant products and programs in association with the banking community. If the demand for them is low, we admit that additional measures to subsidize interest rates may be taken within the framework of the established procedure.”
