"More money - breathes better"

The head of the Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina announced the intent of the department’s intention to increase the international reserves of the Russian Federation from $ 360.5 billion to $ 500 billion. By buying out the market currency. What is motivated and what will mean for the ruble - NT asked experts

“We have enough reserves by all international standards,” said

Nabiullina , speaking at the International Banking Congress in St. Petersburg. “Our reserves cover more than three -month imports, short -term debt, 20% of the money supply ... Therefore, one of the tasks in the near future is to increase reserves reserves over a number of years.”

At the same time, according to her, "the accumulation of reserves should be carried out gradually so that this does not contradict the main goal of monetary policy, namely a decrease in inflation to 4% in the medium term."

According to the professor of the Higher School of Economics (HSE)

Igor Nikolaev, the desire to build up reserves is understandable, because in less than a year and a half they decreased by about $ 150 billion, and they are not enough.

However, at the same time, the Central Bank should act accurately, the expert notes, disagreeing with the plans of the Central Bank to buy currency over the next few years: “Most likely this practice will be short, because the ruble will fall under strong pressure: oil prices will not increase, but no one will cancel the sanctions,” Igor Nikolaev’s forecast is made. According to him, soon an additional pressure factor for the ruble will appear: “The US Federal Reserve (Fed) will raise the main rates, which will strengthen the dollar, and if you also buy currency, you can generally collapse the ruble.”

Chairman of the Board of Directors of OJSC MDM Bank

Oleg Vyugin agrees that the increase in the rate of the Fed may play to weaken the ruble. However, he does not think that this will affect the payment balance of Russia. But what can really bring down the ruble is a decrease in oil price by $ 10-15. Then we will see devaluation again. “It seems to me that the ultimate goal (Central Bank) is not to dig up the reserves, but to prevent strengthening the ruble, to try to make it weaker, which will help the economy,” Oleg Vyugin commented on the intelligence in a conversation with NT .

According to him, this approach is motivated by the fact that the New Year began with a reduction in imports in some areas of up to 40%, this caused a serious surplus of payment balance - of course, the ruble began to strengthen. Also, when the Central Bank buys foreign currency, he thereby actually injects currency at the zero rate into the economy. “It is believed that this is beneficial for industry: more money is breathing better,” explains Vyugin.