Access to liquidity and non‐monetary trade in Russia

This article places non‐monetary trade (NMT), the persistent growth of which in Russia in 1992–98 economists have struggled to explain, within the framework of the credit channel of monetary policy. It shows that producers resorted to NMT responding to increases in the cost and the unavailability of external funds. The article traces the origins of structural breaks in the NMT trend to shifts in state policy that affected financial markets and its transitory fluctuations to temporary shocks in the demand for goods. It concludes that there is significant evidence supporting the existence of the credit channel in the Russian transition.