Demand for cash in Russia in May updated a 30-year-old record

In May 2026, the volume of cash in circulation in Russia increased by 381.2 billion rubles. This became known from the data of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation published on June 8.

This figure was the highest for May for the entire period of disclosure of such statistics, starting in 1995. The high demand of economic agents for cash has been recorded for the third month in a row. According to the regulator, in March the figure amounted to 301.1 billion rubles, and in April — 678.7 billion rubles.

Since the beginning of the year, the volume of cash in circulation has jumped by 1.09 trillion rubles. A more significant increase over the same period — from January to May — was observed only in the pandemic year 2020. Then this figure reached 1.39 trillion rubles.

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Igor Rastorguev, a leading analyst at Amarkets, noted on May 11 that large amounts of cash kept at home may become worthless due to inflation. He also drew attention to the fact that reducing the increased demand for banknotes will allow banks not to increase the shortage of expensive liquidity, which they are forced to borrow from the Central Bank at a high interest rate. According to him, this will eventually make loans more expensive for everyone.