page_title: Economy of Russia
section_title: Currency and central bank
hierarchical_section_title: Economy of Russia / Currency and central bank
caption_attribution_description: Курск English: Central Bank of Russia building Kursk
context_page_description: The economy of Russia is an upper-middle income mixed and transition economy. It is the fifth-largest national economy in Europe, the eleventh-largest nominal GDP in the world, and the fifth-largest by purchasing power parity.
  Russia's vast geography is an important determinant of its economic activity, with some sources estimating that Russia contains over 30 percent of the world's natural resources. The World Bank estimates the total value of Russia's natural resources at $75 trillion US dollars. Russia relies on energy revenues to drive most of its growth. Russia has an abundance of oil, natural gas and precious metals, which make up a major share of Russia's exports. As of 2012, the oil-and-gas sector accounted for 16% of GDP, 52% of federal budget revenues and over 70% of total exports. Russia is considered an "energy superpower". It has the world's largest proven natural gas reserves and is the largest exporter of natural gas. It is also the second-largest exporter of petroleum.
context_section_description: The Russian ruble is the unit of currency of the Russian Federation. It is also accepted as legal tender in the partially recognised states of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and the unrecognised Donetsk People's Republic and Lugansk People's Republic.
  The Russian monetary system is managed by the Bank of Russia. Founded on 13 July 1990 as the State Bank of the RSFSR, Bank of Russia assumed responsibilities of the central bank following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.
  According to the Constitution, Bank of Russia is an independent entity, with the primary responsibility of protecting the stability of the national currency, the ruble. It is also chief regulator and a lender of last resort for the banking industry in Russia. Bank of Russia is governed by a board of directors, headed by a governor who is appointed by the President of Russia.
  Large current account surpluses caused rapid real appreciation of the ruble between 2000 and 2008. Bank of Russia attempted to combat this trend by aggressively accumulating foreign currency reserves. This was a major contributing cause to relatively high inflation rates during this period. Central bank policy evolved following the global financial crisis. Instead of targeting a fixed exchange rate vs a basket of dollar and euro, Bank of Russia shifted its focus to inflation targeting. In April 2012 Russian inflation reached record low of 3.6%.
  The Russian Central Bank has been planning to free float the Russian ruble and has been widening the currency's trading band and expects the ruble to be fully free floating in 2015. However, the ruble has fallen significantly since 2013 when the central bank announced the plans. On 3 October 2014, the USD–RUB exchange reached 40.00 Russian rubles to USD, up from 32.19 rubles the same time last year; this represents a decline of 24.26%. The Russian Central bank has stated that Russian banks are able to withstand a devaluation of up to 25%–30% in January 2014 when the ruble has just begun its decline, therefore Central Bank intervention may be needed; however, plans to free-float the currency continued, as of January 2014. The Russian Central Bank spent $88 billion in order to stem the fall of the ruble in 2014. Due to central bank intervention and stronger oil prices the ruble rebounded sharply at the beginning of 2015. In April 2015, Ksenia Yudaeva, Bank of Russia's First Deputy Governor, stated that she believed the currency had stabilized at the present rate of around 50 rubles to USD.
  Along with a rapid devaluation of the ruble, inflation in Russia has greatly increased. In October 2014 the rate of inflation was reported to be 8%, although this was well below the 2333.30% inflation rate experienced in 1992. In November 2017 inflation was at its lowest ever point since the fall of the Soviet Union at 2.5%.
caption: Central Bank of Russia building in Kursk
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