Recently, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov called on his compatriots to get rid of cash dollars and purchase federal loan bonds (OFZ).
Nikolai Kuznetsov, associate professor of the Department of Finance and Credit at the State University of Management (Moscow), and candidate of economic sciences, spoke about whether Russians should follow the minister’s advice.
The economist's opinion is cited by Bankiros.ru .
Why Russians are being urged to get rid of cash dollars
As Kuznetsov explained, Russians currently keep more than 51 trillion rubles in banks. This is almost comparable to the savings of large corporations.
However, Russian citizens keep another 18 trillion rubles in cash. Russians keep about 8.1 trillion rubles in cash currency.
At the same time, the economist continued, the state is catastrophically short of “long” (invested for a long period) money.
The minister, who is trying to attract citizens to government debt securities, is looking for ways to support the economy, Kuznetsov explained.
In addition, the economist added, there are indeed problems with the currency: banks and retail outlets at popular resorts refuse to accept old dollars and euros due to their low protection against counterfeiting.
In Russia, they may be subject to increased commission, the expert noted.
Answering the question of whether it is worth abandoning the American currency in favor of OFZ, Kuznetsov stated that this is a debatable issue.
The problems exist, but whether it is worthwhile to immediately change the currency and invest money in bonds in light of them is still a big question, the economist summed up.
