Report: Russian cbank promises strong, sudden, rare interventions

MOSCOW, Nov 17 (PRIME) -- The Russian central bank may intervene suddenly and in large volumes if it sees that the ruble is in danger, Central Bank Chairwoman Elvira Nabiullina told Rossiya 1 channel on November 15.

“The introduction of the ruble free float should not be seen as a refusal to participate in it (the ruble rate) and the abandonment of monitoring events there. First, if there is necessity, including if there is panic demand, we can intervene anytime,” Nabiullina said.

“We are monitoring all information, everything that is going on on the foreign exchange market in a real time regime, and apart from foreign currency interventions which might be sudden, strong but rare, we have other tools to influence speculators, including holding up ruble liquidity, and so on.”

Nabiullina said she believes that a strong ruble volatility seen after the central bank’s removal of the ruble trading range will gradually subside. The ruble has a large potential to strengthen in case there are no external shocks.

Nabiullina separately said that the floating ruble will help the central bank rein in the consumer price growth to 4% by 2018.

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