Cbanker: Regulator to determine currency purchase mechanism in Dec

MOSCOW, Nov 20 (PRIME) -- The central bank will not return to the market for foreign currency purchases until January 2019 and will determine a mechanism of resumption of the purchases in December, First Deputy Chairwoman Ksenia Yudayeva said at a forum on Tuesday.

“The central bank’s plan is not to return to the market until January… We will appraise the way of returning to the market in December,” she said.

Russia’s financial markets and economy have appeared to be more resistant to oil price fluctuations in 2018 among other things thanks to the budget rule mechanism, Yudayeva also said.

In February 2017, the Finance Ministry entered the currency market to minimize dependency of the ruble on oil prices. Under a budget rule, additional oil and gas revenues of the budget from the oil price above U.S. $40 per barrel are earmarked for the purchase of currency on the domestic market.

In August 2018, the central bank said it stopped buying foreign currency for the ministry until the end of September following a significant weakening of the ruble in the light of fresh U.S. sanctions against Russia and high volatility on emerging markets. In September, the regulator decided to prolong the suspension of the purchases until the end of 2018.

Yudayeva also said that the central bank’s mission is not to guess which sanctions are to be imposed against Russia, but to develop a variety of tools to counter such moves.

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