Russia Widens Ruble Band as Free-Float Plan on Track

Russia’s central bank widened the ruble’s trading band, signaling the conflict in Ukraine won’t derail plans to float the currency at the turn of the year.

Policy makers increased the band to 9 rubles from 7 rubles and abandoned interventions within the range, Bank of Russia said in a statement today. The ruble strengthened 0.2 percent to 41.5706 against the bank’s target basket of dollars and euros by 7:28 p.m. in Moscow, paring its 2014 decline against the greenback to 8.9 percent, the worst performance among emerging-market currencies after Argentine’s peso.