The main events by the morning: September 5

• The exchange yuan soared by 5% due to cosmic bets on its attraction. RUSFAR CNY – the rate of short-term loans of yuan liquidity – today rose to 212% per annum, that is, the deficit of yuan continues to grow. This could have caused a sharp rise in the yuan on the stock exchange.

• The peak of the overheating of the Russian economy has been left behind. This was stated by the head of SBER, German Gref, at the Eastern Economic Forum. According to him, key economic indicators have stabilized, and there is no further growth, which indicates that the peak has passed. However, according to Gref, the residual effects are still putting pressure on prices.

• VTB acquired the First Freight Company, one of the largest private railway operators in Russia. As the head of VTB Andrey Kostin said on the sidelines of the WEF, the deal is estimated at more than 200 billion rubles, taking into account the company's debt obligations. In early August, it became known that VTB had the operator's carriage fleet as collateral.

• Unilever is withdrawing from the Russian market — the sale of the business for 35-40 billion rubles has been approved. A government commission approved the deal in August, but the buyer has not yet been named. The assets of Unilever's Russian business, taking into account the discount, were estimated at 35-40 billion rubles.

• Bank cards continue to be the leader among payment methods. According to a T-Bank study, in January 2022, Apple Pay and Google Pay accounted for 46% of all non-cash payments, and cards accounted for 51%. By June 2024, the share of cards had grown to 78%, while other contactless payment methods remain less popular.