According to a statement by the Bank of Russia, net capital outflow fell to $56.9 billion in 2015, down from $153 billion in 2014. The statement reads that capital flight amounted to $9.2 billion in Q4 whereas the regulator logged capital inflow of $3.4 billion in Q3.
The central bank notes that payments by companies to service their external debts are the main constituent of the capital outflow last year. Banks were the most active to settle their foreign liabilities by selling foreign assets, so their debts were repaid by current transactions. Other sectors also repaid their external debts. Nowadays, Russian companies do not consider it beneficial to withdraw money abroad opting to invest in Russian assets.
On November 13, 2015 Bank of Russia Governor Elvira Nabiullina said that Russia’s foreign debt shrank nearly 30% to $522 billion from $729 billion. She also estimated that the capital outflow would equal almost $70 billion.
