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Russian finance ministry not seeking to influence ruble’s exchange rate

"The rate is floating, predictability is the main thing for us, which is why we do not seek to weaken the exchange rate or replenish revenues," Anton Siluanov said

MOSCOW, December 13. /TASS/. Russia’s Finance Ministry relies on projections of the ruble’s exchange rate used for drafting the country’s budget for 2024-2026, and it does not seek to weaken or strengthen the rate, Minister Anton Siluanov said in an interview with Izvestia.

"We rely on projections of the [ruble’s] exchange rate that we used for drafting the budget [for 2024-2026]. The rate is floating, predictability is the main thing for us, which is why we do not seek to weaken the exchange rate or replenish revenues. Or otherwise, to strengthen, encourage importers. The rate is floating, though it should be predictable and acceptable for our participants of foreign economic activities and the population," he said.

Earlier, the minister said that the task of the Russian authorities was to make the fluctuations of the dollar’s exchange rate predictable. According to Siluanov, it is hardly possible to totally ignore the exchange rate of the dollar as there exist outbound tourism and major supplies of imported goods to Russia, but it is necessary to try to make sure that "less attention is paid to it." The minister called the floating exchange rate one of the ministry’s main principles, adding that the lack of attempts by the ministry to influence the formation of exchange rate relations through budget is the second principle.

Siluanov also said that the government’s measures on obligatory sale of foreign currency revenues by exporters play the role of a stabilizer of volatility of the ruble’s exchange rate, noting that the return to obligatory sale of currency revenues by exporters is a temporary policy.

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