OREANDA-NEWS. January 20, 2009. The Central Bank of Russia decided to postpone for three months raising mandatory reserve ratios to 1.5% and 2.5% from the current 0.5% to soften the consequences of the financial crisis, the central bank said in a press release. "In order to mitigate the consequences of the global financial crisis the board of directors at the Central Bank of Russia adopted a decision on January 19, 2009 to postpone the timeframe for the gradual increase of the effective mandatory reserves ratios" – the press release said. As a result, the ratios will be hiked to 1.5% starting May 1, 2009, but not beginning February 1 as planned earlier. The next phase of hiking the ratios (to 2.5%) will begin on June 1, 2009 rather than on March 1, 2009.