Russians hurried to change their savings and pensions into dollars and euros while also stocking up on furniture and jewellery as the rouble’s collapse accelerated.
Their mounting concern was reflected on Tuesday morning in the red lights of the currency exchange booths that dot the city, which were ticking over to show ever weaker rouble rates.
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“I took out some of my pension and I want to change it into dollars,” said Galina, a retiree, who declined to give her surname. “None of us know what’s happening. We’re all worried that the currency will keep falling.”
The dramatic collapse in the rouble in recent days has not triggered outright panic, but it has prompted a rush to change currency and to stock up on durable goods such as furniture, cars and jewellery before they become even more expensive.
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"I think the rouble will carry on falling until the end of the year,” she said. “It’s time to buy furniture!”
Indeed, shoppers reported enormous queues even at 2am in Ikea on Monday night as people rushed to stock up before the rouble plunge triggered price rises. The Swedish furniture company had said it would be raising prices from Thursday.
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"People who didn’t manage to exchange their money at 35 roubles or 40 roubles to the dollar have been buying up high-end goods, cars and apartments because a massive repricing hasn’t happened yet,” said Vyacheslav Trapeznikov, acting director of the Urals Builders’ Guild, in Yekaterinburg.
Car sales in Russia rose in November from the previous month — in spite of a slowing economy — and December is “rather promising”, according to the Association of European Businesses in Russia trade group. “Retail demand has been extraordinary in recent weeks,” said Joerg Schreiber of the AEB.
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“People are trying to spend their last roubles and buy up things that haven’t been priced, but this trend has an expiration date,” Mr Trapeznikov said.
Russians are lining up at currency exchange centers to swap their increasingly worthless Rubles for Dollars...
World War III has begun. How many millions will the Europeans kill this time ?
If the Ruble is going down why are crude prices rising? Is that in Russia or in the commodities market??
I wonder if the _Reserve_ system is tossing around scores of hundred billion dollars to drive this chaos. Got to save the _Reserve_ game somehow...?