Russia's central bank on Tuesday hiked interest rates by 350 points to 12% at an emergency meeting, as Moscow looks to halt a rapid depreciation of the ruble currency.
Russia’s central bank on Tuesday hiked interest rates by 350 basis points to 12% at an emergency meeting, as Moscow looks to halt a rapid depreciation of the country’s ruble
currency.
The ruble slumped to near 102 to the dollar on Monday, as President Vladimir Putin’s economic advisor, Maxim Oreshkin, penned an op-ed in Russian state-owned Tass news agency that blamed the plunging currency and the acceleration of inflation on the “loose monetary policy” of the central bank.
I don't think there's really a comparison, but the US Fed increased the prime rate significantly more than how you worded that. They did it over a year or so depending on how you interpret the data. The rate was increased by 5%, which is more than double, from 3/22 to 8/23.
12% is fine. It's a temporary measure to keep the currency at bay. It's not great, don't get me wrong, I'd much rather it was at 4-5% as it was in 2020, but it's appropriate given what's happenning with the country.
In comparison, on February 2022 it was 20%, which in simple terms saved the banking system from collapsing, our Cenral Bank is one of not that many agencies that are at least compitent.
It does slow down the economic growth, but trust me, there are way bigger problems than expensive credit when it comes to economic growth. Short-term everything is quite well, but long-term if nothing changes? Oh boy, oh boy.
Long term problem, I mean, most of the industrialized world loathing Russia and not wanting to trade at all is going to hurt much more than currency instability.