OREANDA-NEWS. December 08, 2009. CBR continues to embark on interventions to inhibit ruble appreciation, a process reflected in weekly statistics released on Russia’s international reserves. In the week ended 27 November, those reserves were up US5.9bn, reaching US 449.7bn., reported the press-centre of OTKRITIE FC.

This was most likely a function of the US 4.4bn in bank interventions and a positive revaluation of the non-dollar components of the reserves. As of the beginning of December, international reserves had eased back to 447.8bn.

View: We regard these developments as positive because as we consider ruble appreciation hazardous for the Russian economy, and thus it should be halted. CBR’s interest rate cuts and interventions on the currency market have had this aim, as last week’s figures demonstrate. We applaud these actions by the country’s monetary authorities. Also, CBR creates money by means of currency purchases, which is helpful for the economy. At present, this policy seems to be countercyclical.