Russia's banking system stable - Central Bank Head

Russia's banking system is stable and is in a safe zone, head of the country's Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina said Monday.

"The situation in the banking sector is in many ways mirroring what is happening in the economy. Of course, external events could not but affect the development of the banking system, but in general, the main indicators show that it is in a safe area, the banking system is stable," Nabiullina said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Putin, in turn, told Nabiullina that the Central Bank was doing much to strengthen the national currency, as well as making Russia’s financial system stable as a whole.

"We had an outflow of deposits at the end of [last] year, the beginning of this year. The outflow is now completely compensated," Nabiullina said.

The Russian economy declined in 2014 following a drop in global oil prices and several rounds of anti-Russia economic sanctions imposed by Western countries over Moscow's alleged role in the Ukrainian conflict.

In mid-March, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that the Russian economy had passed its lowest point at the end of 2014 and was now stabilizing.

The Russian authorities unveiled a plan in January to stabilize and improve the country's economic situation by 2017.

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