Nabiullina announced the stop of foreign exchange interventions

Elvira Nabiullina: The Bank of Russia suspended foreign exchange interventions

The Central Bank has suspended foreign exchange interventions, said Elvira Nabiullina, head of the Bank of Russia. The regulator cannot implement them due to new EU and US sanctions. Instead, exporters are now required to sell currency on the market

The Bank of Russia suspended foreign exchange interventions. He did not spend them during the auction on February 28. This was stated by the chairman of the Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina during her speech.

“Due to restrictions on the use of gold and foreign exchange reserves in dollars and euros, we did not intervene today. The government has announced a decision to introduce the mandatory sale of 80% of export earnings. This measure will ensure a uniform supply of foreign currency in the domestic foreign exchange market to meet the needs of importers and citizens. At the same time, we are implementing a number of steps aimed at limiting the export of capital by non-residents,” Nabiullina said.

Amid the military operation in Ukraine, the regulator faced unprecedented sanctions. The European Union has decided to ban its citizens from all transactions with the Bank of Russia and persons acting on its behalf and at its direction, that is, to actually freeze its reserves abroad. The United States made a similar decision: the Russian Central Bank is not included in the SDN blocking list, but US citizens can no longer conduct transactions with it, as well as with the Ministry of Finance and the National Welfare Fund. Japan also joined the sanctions.