Blowing $24 Billion on Ruble Spurs Free-Float Bet
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The ruble’s persistent weakening in the face of $24 billion of interventions is stoking speculation the Bank of Russia will accelerate its switch to a free float.
The currency fell to a record for a sixth day today, losing 0.6 percent to 42.7410 per dollar and bringing this month’s drop to 7.4 percent, the most among 24 developing nations tracked by Bloomberg. The central bank, which plans to stop managing the ruble in 2015, should take the step now to make its interventions less predictable and keep speculators at bay, former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said yesterday.