UFA . July 9. / TASS / Russia's Central Bank still has reserves in order to prevent serious ruble volatility in case of major oil price fluctuations, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said in an interview with Russian TV channel Rossiya-1 on Thursday.
"Even if the prices of Russian export commodities decrease, there will be fewer purchases, and the course should remain at roughly the same position. That means that the Central Bank still has reserves that to influence the market, in order to prevent serious ruble volatility," Siluanov said.
As TASS reported earlier, the Russian Central Bank decided from May 13, 2015 regularly purchase foreign currency on the domestic foreign exchange market in order to replenish international reserves. This decision was made taking into account the normalization of the situation in the domestic foreign exchange market and is not aimed at maintaining a certain level of the exchange rate, the Central Bank said. Operations will be carried out on a daily basis in the amount of $100-200 mln; the Central Bank published its report on monetary policy, in which it revealed plans to replenish reserves to $500 bln in 5-7 years.
"The Central Bank of Russia plans to replenish reserves up to $500 bln in three years in good case scenario of the economic development and will not be able to meet the deadline in case of a stress scenario", head of the Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina said. "The comfortable level of international reserves making possible to stabilize the payment balance in conditions of prolonged stress situation is about $500 bln, according to estimates of the Bank of Russia. This entails the need for foreign currency purchases by the Bank of Russia during the long period of time, which may range from 5 to 7 years," the report said.
Russian financial sector recovering
Russia’s financial sector is recovering, the general economic recovery is expected in late 2015-early 2016, Siluanov went on to say.
"The financial sector is now recovering. We have no doubt that the economic recovery will follow the financial sector. We hope that this will happen by the end of this or the beginning of the next year," he said.
According to the updated forecast of the Economic Development Ministry, published in May, the decline in Russia’s GDP in 2015 will amount to 2.8%, the growth of 2.3% is expected in in 2016 and 2017, which will accelerate in 2018 to 2.4%.
According to the forecast, inflation in Russia in 2015 will be at 11.9%, followed by a slowdown in 2016 to 7%, in 2017 — to 6.3%, in 2018 — to 5.1%.