Against the background of the Ukraine war and the sanctions imposed by the West, private households in Russia withdrew foreign currencies from their accounts on a large scale in March.
A total of $9.8 billion worth of foreign currency was withdrawn from accounts, the Russian central bank said on Wednesday.
“The quarter was difficult, to put it bluntly.
It was very worrying at certain moments, but most importantly, the situation has stabilized," Alexander Danilov, director of the Central Bank's Banking Regulation and Analysis Department, commented on the data.
At the end of February, the banking sector faced significant outflows.
"People have panicked and withdrawn money from their accounts for fear of their safety," Danilov said.
In its monthly survey of developments in Russia's banking sector, the central bank said deposits at institutions fell by 1.2 trillion rubles ($14.72 billion) in February.
The outflows continued in March at 236 billion rubles.
In contrast to previous reports, however, the central bank did not publish any data on the profits of the banking sector this time.
Russia's central bank more than doubled interest rates to 20 percent on February 28 as the first wave of sanctions hit the economy.
Then, on April 8, it lowered it to 17 percent.
The key rate is expected to be cut further at the next rate meeting on April 29th.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.
Western countries then imposed sanctions that were tightened several times.