Reuters
Moscow
The Russian central bank said yesterday it would not impose “administrative” controls in an effort to curb speculation in foreign exchange markets.
“With the goal of limiting speculative activity, the Bank of Russia is considering exclusively measures of an economic character and does not intend to introduce administrative restrictions,” the bank said in e-mailed comments.
It added that the “introduction of mandatory sales of foreign currency revenues is not being considered,” and said that it would work more closely with the Finance Ministry to regulate banking sector liquidity.
The statement follows comments by President Vladimir Putin earlier in which he called for “tough” measures against forex market speculators.
The rouble has been pushed down by falling oil prices and damage to Russia’s economy from its involvement in the Ukraine crisis.
It has fallen around 38% against the dollar since the start of the year.
The central bank also said that if it saw evidence of manipulation in the forex market, it would initiate an investigation.
“The central bank continuously monitors trading on the foreign exchange market in order to identify dishonest behaviour among market participants,” the bank said. “If there is evidence of manipulation in the forex market, the Bank of Russia intends to initiate an investigation into relevant factors.”
“Suggestion that (the central bank) will use ‘economic’ tools to fight speculators, I guess this means conventional monetary/exchange rate policy tools: rate, liquidity management and direct intervention,” Timothy Ash, head of emerging markets strategy at Standard Bank in London, said in a note.
The central bank’s comments have failed to lift the rouble. Yesterday, it traded 1.5% down on the day at 54.04 roubles per dollar.