Cbank may abolish, cut mandatory foreign currency sales for firms

MOSCOW, Apr 29 (PRIME) -- The Russian central bank may cancel the mandatory sales of foreign currency by non-energy exporters and reduce the amount of mandatory sales for oil and gas exporters to 50%, Chairwoman Elvira Nabiullina said in a news conference on Friday.

The regulator limited the capital flow in order to reduce the risks for financial stability while it was unable to launch foreign currency interventions. The mandatory sales of foreign currency by exporters was another measure to curb the risks, she said.

“We’ve suggested recently that the government’s commission considers another step, the obligation to sell foreign currency revenue for non-oil and gas and non-energy exporters may be abolished, while for energy companies it may be reduced to 50%,” she said.

She also said that the obligation to sell foreign currencies from the friendly countries should also be cancelled. But capital flow to and from the so-called unfriendly countries should remain restricted for now, she said.

She also said that there was no necessity to change the order of conversion of foreign currencies into rubles that was set for payments for natural gas from the unfriendly countries. The law defines the mechanism, it is transparent and clear, and there will be no problems with it if a buyer complies with the law. There are no sanctions imposed on Gazprombank that limit its possibilities to sell currency on the exchange, she said.

It would be wrong to lift the restrictions on the purchases of foreign currency by individuals until at least September 9, she said.

Pegging of the ruble to gold is also not under discussion, Nabiullina said, adding that the central bank does not target the ruble rate as there is no rate that would be a compromise between exporters and importers.

“We think that having a floating rate is a blessing, but the flow of capital is restricted now,” she said, adding that the ruble should remain floating.

She also said that the Finance Ministry of Russia has enough resources to redeem the sovereign Eurobonds, meaning a default is impossible from an economic point of view, the payments only depend on the foreign banks.

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