MOSCOW, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Russian central bank chief Sergei
Dubinin said on Friday that floating the rouble and expanding
its band against the dollar should make the currency's movements
more predictable and had already cut the cost of supporting it.
Dubinin, speaking to members of the State Duma, parliament's
lower house, said a series of crisis steps by the central bank
and government on Monday, marked a big change to rouble policy.
"This allows us to expect a switch from jumps in exchange
rate changes to try to move to a smooth change, to return maybe
to exchange rate movements that will be quicker but more
predictable," he said. "This is our next task."
The monetary measures included allowing the rouble to float
freely and expanding its corridor against the dollar to 6.0/9.5
to the dollar to the end of the year from 5.27/7.13.
"This will allow us to conserve the country's gold and
foreign currency reserves, our interventions (in the market)
have fallen sharply over the last few days," Dubinin said.
"If we talk about the size of our daily interventions then
they are three times smaller than they were in the previous two
weeks on a daily basis," he said.
((Anna Smirnova, Moscow Newsroom, +7095 941-8520
moscow.newsroom@reuters.com))
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