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So Many Russians Are Buying Gold That Central Bank Halts Bank Purchases
• https://www.zerohedge.com by Tyler Durden"Currently, households' demand for buying physical gold in bars has increased, driven, in particular, by the abolition of value-added tax on these operations," reads a statement from the central bank.
On Feb. 28, the central bank raised the key rate from 9.5% to 20% as the ruble crashed to record lows amid the Kremlin's so-called "special operation" in Ukraine. The announcement is a flip-flop from a February announcement that the financial authority would resume gold purchases after commercial banks were hit with Western sanctions in response to the invasion.
"With the goal of diversifying the central bank's reserves, at the moment there is no sense in building up reserves in gold," according to VTB analysts, who added that the banking sector's structural liquidity deficit had contracted to under 4 trillion rubles (US$36 billion), down from a record 7 trillion rubles.