Russia is mulling more extreme measures to prop up the ruble, which crashed on Monday. Kremlin officials discussed reviving a requirement on companies to sell export revenue, sources told Bloomberg. That comes as Russia’s central bank raised its benchmark rate to 12% from 8.5% on Tuesday. Loading Something is loading.
Thanks for signing up!
Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you’re on the go.
Russia is reportedly mulling more extreme measures to prop up the ruble, which crashed to less than a penny on Monday.
Kremlin officials discussed reviving a requirement on companies to sell export revenue, sources told Bloomberg.
The proposal was brought up during a meeting between the government and Russian exporters, which are among the country’s few remaining sources of foreign currencies, the report said.
The meeting took place before Russia’s central bank raised its benchmark rate to 12% from 8.5% during an emergency meeting Tuesday in a bid to stem the ruble’s collapse.
But no definitive decision on export revenue was reached, and another meeting is possible later in the week, sources told Bloomberg.
Forcing exporters to sell their foreign-exchange revenue would mark a return to the type of harsh capital controls that Russia imposed last year in the immediate aftermath of its Ukraine invasion.
After the West froze Moscow’s currency reserves and largely shut it out of the global financial system, the Kremlin relied on a host of capital controls, such as limits on bank forex transfers, as well as steep rate hikes to stabilize the ruble.
Russia later eased some controls as the ruble rebounded, but the currency has been sliding since the fall as additional Western sanctions have hit export revenue while the war in Ukraine has boosted government spending.
On Monday, the ruble tumbled as low as 102 per US dollar, meaning that each ruble was worth less than $0.01. On Tuesday, the ruble recovered some ground to trade at 97 per dollar after the central bank lifted rates.
Still, Russia’s currency has lost about 25% against the dollar this year, making it one of the world’s worst-performing currencies along with the Turkish lira and Argentine peso.