Russian lending institutions would cope with ruble devaluation of 30%, first deputy CBR chairwoman Ksenia Yudaeva told The Wall Street Journal.
Stress tests conducted by the regulator showed that the lending institutions would be able to easily stand a fluctuation of the national currency’s exchange rates by 25—30%. “But this does not mean that we expect such fluctuations," Yudaeva specified.
According to her, the regulator would shift to inflation targeting as of 2015 regardless of any fluctuations in the ruble’s exchange rates. In addition, a free floating ruble would help the national economy overcome external shocks. Yudaeva emphasized that it is important to keep economic growth stable at 3—4% in the next few years. This is a more difficult objective than “to simply achieve GDP growth of 3% in the next few months”, she pointed out.
Last week the first deputy CBR chairwoman said in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta that “it is not possible to run with the hares and hunt with the hounds, i.e. to maintain stability of the ruble and interest rates”. According to Yudaeva, currently it is more important to focus on inflation and the interest rate policy.
At the unified trading session with TOM settlements the dollar’s weighted average exchange rate as of 11:30 MSK, which the Bank of Russia uses when setting its next-day official rate, reached Rub 33.6429 on Monday, the highest level since summer 2012.
