While consumers around the globe were hoarding toilet paper last month ahead of a wave of government-imposed lockdowns, Russians were stockpiling something more important While consumers around the globe were hoarding toilet paper last month ahead of a wave of government-imposed lockdowns, Russians were stockpiling cash.
About 1 trillion rubles ($13.6 billion) has been issued from cash machines and bank branches since the beginning of March, more than during the whole of last year, central bank data show. “People were afraid that banks will be unavailable during the quarantine," said Denis Poryvay, an analyst at Raiffeisenbank in Moscow. “They withdrew money for the same reason as people hoarded food." Daily spikes in withdrawals coincide