By Gleb Bryanski
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's powerful oil and metals firms hold the key to the liquidity situation in the banking system in the coming months, a senior central banker told the Reuters Russia Investment Summit on Monday.
"If our exporters do not sell their proceeds, or preserve their foreign currency holdings, it will give us the result of 300-400 billion roubles ($11.7-$15.6 billion in daily refinancing demand)," said Konstantin Korishchenko, deputy chairman of the central bank.
The central bank injected hundreds of billions of roubles into the banking system through repurchase operations in August as foreign investors pulled money out of Russia and other emerging markets amid a global credit crunch.
Exports of oil, gas and other strategic commodities are the major sources of foreign currency in Russia, though more recently the country has also experienced a wave of capital inflows as firms and banks extensively borrowed abroad.
State-controlled companies such as oil firm Rosneft (ROSN.MM: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and gas export monopoly Gazprom (GAZP.MM: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) dominate the energy sector, while the metals and mining sectors are mostly in private hands.
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The exporters, acting through affiliated banks, are also major players in the domestic currency market, as they sell their earnings, mostly dollars, to the central bank, which in turn prints the roubles to take foreign currency off the market.
Korishchenko said exporters globally have started to behave more like financial investors, switching their earnings between currencies and assets. However, they still have to pay taxes in countries where they operate. Continued...
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