The Central Bank carried out “insignificant” currency interventions this month as it sought to prevent excessive ruble volatility, Chairman Sergei Ignatyev said Wednesday.
The Central Bank purchased a net $400 million through Dec. 15 as it both bought and sold currency on the market, Ignatyev told the State Duma on Wednesday.
The Central Bank last month purchased the highest total of euros this year, buying a net 745.1 million euros ($1.1 billion) and $7.32 billion, as the regulator sought to weaken the ruble and rebuild reserves. It bought $15.2 billion in October and $2.7 billion a month earlier. The Central Bank steers the ruble against a target dollar-euro basket.
The ruble lost 5.4 percent against the dollar in the past month, making it the third-worst performer of the 26 emerging-market currencies tracked by Bloomberg in the period.
The ruble made its third daily drop against the dollar on Wednesday, slipping 0.2 percent to 30.26 per dollar.
The level of lending in the banking industry remains low, Ignatyev said. Corporate loans are “practically not growing,” while lending to consumers continues to shrink, he said.
Lenders’ corporate loan books fell 0.5 percent in October, after declining 0.7 percent in September, according to Central Bank data. Loans to consumers dropped 0.7 percent for a ninth consecutive monthly decline.
The share of delinquent debt in Russia’s banking industry will peak in the next few months and then begin dropping, Ignatyev said. Corporate overdue loans stopped rising in September before resuming growth in the following month, he said.
The regulator will continue replacing unsecured loans that it started extending to banks during the financial crisis with more traditional refinancing instruments, including Lombard loans and repo operations, Ignatyev said, adding that the Central Bank takes on high credit risks by providing loans without collaterals.
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