By James Slavyanski
MOSCOW
The Russian ruble continued to struggle Thursday, as it made a weak recovery in morning trading only to fall again against the dollar and the euro later in the day.
In the morning the Russian currency managed to climb against the dollar and the euro to 58.9 and 72.6, respectively. In the afternoon, however, it fell to 61.08 to the dollar and 75.25 to the euro.
The stock market experienced a similar rise and fall, with the RTS index reaching 776.33 around midday, only to contract back to 768.98 by the end of the afternoon.
In a press release, the Russian central bank outlined a seven-point list of measures aimed at bringing stability to Russia's financial sector. Among these are the temporary suspension of restricting effective interest rates on consumer loans for credit institutions and microfinance loans, as well as a provision allowing credit institutions to temporarily use the exchange rate of the previous quarter when calculating prudential requirements for operations in foreign currencies.
Russian president Vladimir Putin discussed the economic crisis at the beginning of his annual press conference Thursday, saying the central bank and the government's response to the crisis was "adequate."
He acknowledged that mistakes in leadership "always exist," but said the central bank and government were correcting the situation facing Russia today. In spite of his general optimism, the president said he believed that a full recovery could take as many as two years.
Russia's economy was already starting to feel the combined pressure of falling oil prices and foreign-imposed sanctions when Tuesday's currency crisis took place, during which the ruble lost more than 20 percent of its value in one day. The situation has already been compared to 1998, when the Russian government defaulted on its loans.
www.aa.com.tr/en
