MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s central bank sees no immediate need to further soften capital controls that have been supporting the rouble since the spring, Governor Elvira Nabiullina told lawmakers on Tuesday.
The rouble has become the world’s best-performing currency this year, boosted by capital controls that include curbs on foreign currency withdrawals.
The measures have also eaten into Russia’s export income by denting the value of dollar and euro proceeds from sales of commodities and other goods abroad.
Nabiullina warned against underestimating the impact of sanctions imposed against Russia over its actions in Ukraine, but said Russia’s economy and banking sector have stood up well to the challenge.
“Sanctions are very powerful and their influence on the Russian and global economy should not be downplayed,” Nabiullina said. “Isolating from their influence is not possible.”
As the West shuns Russia and Moscow seeks to develop trading routes, potential partners are afraid of secondary sanctions, Nabiullina said.
“Digital currencies, which we and many of our major partners are developing themselves, can become one of the factors in dealing with this bottleneck.”
(Reporting by Elena Fabrichnaya and Alexander Marrow; Editing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa)
