With little to buy in the shops, the result has been the build-up of a huge 'monetary overhang'.

Monetary overhang is a phenomenon where people have money holdings due to the lack of ability to spend them.

Hyperinflation hit the ruble, due to monetary overhang from the days of the planned economy.

"monetary overhang" by Holger C. Wolf.

By the end of the Soviet era, however, Soviet planners were plagued by what they perceived as a substantial and growing monetary overhang, which took the form of supply shortages.

By the time it left office, the exchange rate in the parallel market had depreciated further, over 10% of GDP had been borrowed to finance the fiscal deficit, and there was a significant monetary overhang in the country.

Increasing the inflationary pressure, the monetary overhang - the money people are forced to save because there are not enough goods to buy - soared to 186 billion rubles on Sept. 1, up 40 percent from 132 billion last Janaury.

The partial results of liberalization (lifting price controls) included worsening already apparent hyperinflation, initially due to monetary overhang and exacerbated after the central bank, an organ under parliament, which was skeptical of Yeltsin's reforms, was short of revenue and printed money to finance its debt.