Russia has currency resources to overcome crisis: Medvedev

MOSCOW, Russia – Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday, December 17, assured ministers and industry leaders that the country had enough monetary resources to overcome the economic crisis despite the ruble’s plunge in value.

“All the economic and production goals that you have set yourselves, the country has the currency resources to achieve them,” Medvedev said in a televised meeting.

“We act on the basis that our future actions must be based on market mechanisms,” he said, ruling out the use of capital controls to restrict currency transactions.

“There is no point in bringing in the extremely harsh regulation in this sphere that there was at one time. It doesn’t lead to anything useful,” Medvedev said.

The prime minister acknowledged that the ruble had plunged below the “comfort” level for the economy and the public alike.

He said that while objective economic reasons were behind the collapse, “emotions here have done their work too”, warning against panic.

Medvedev said the central bank and the government had worked out a package of measures to stabilize the situation.

“It’s in our joint interests to bring order to the currency market as quickly as possible,” Medvedev said. “No one — neither our citizens nor banks nor the real economy — needs such instability.” – Rappler.com