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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Russia Finance Ministry Selling Reserves to Support Ruble |
| 2014-12-18 |
| [AnNahar] Russia's finance ministry is selling its foreign currency to support the ruble, a spokeswoman told AFP on Wednesday. "The finance ministry considers the ruble extremely undervalued and is starting to sell its left-over currency on the market," spokeswoman Svetlana Nikitina said. She did not give details of the amount. The ruble rose in value after the announcement by the ministry to 81.61 to the euro and 65.15 rubles per dollar. "We'll do it for as long as it is needed," deputy finance minister Alexei Moiseyev was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency. The finance ministry said it has around $7 billion at its disposal to prop up the currency. It was not going to crack open a rainy day fund. The intervention by the finance ministry comes after Russia's central bank has spent more than $10 billion from its currency reserves to prop up the ruble since the start of the month. At an emergency meeting on Tuesday the Russian government came up with a list of measures to stabilise the situation, economy minister Alexei Ulyukayev said. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #3 Middle East crisis coming in 10, 9, 8... (If the Russians can provoke something that drives the price of oil up, then ?) |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2014-12-18 07:32 |
| #2 Why can't they simply print more, force it on the banks through a mysterious, non-governmental third party, and then borrow it back from the banks at a ridiculously low rate of interest? Because they are a central-planning society, ruled by a dictator surrounded by a bunch of semi-illiterate (in particular, economically) sycophants? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2014-12-18 05:38 |
| #1 Why can't they simply print more, force it on the banks through a mysterious, non-governmental third party, and then borrow it back from the banks at a ridiculously low rate of interest ? This way you control the banks, borrow money at very low rates, and discourage pesky, private citizen competition from thrifty investors who wish to earn money in FDIC insured bank deposits. Forcing investors to play 'big-lotto' in the stock market [where politicians get inside trading info.... legally] provides much more opportunity to relieve them of their hard earned IRA/401k money. Of course they could opt to keep it under the bed, it will only lose about five to seven percent per year there. What an amazing circus, no ? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2014-12-18 04:06 |