### Russian Central Bank Halts Foreign Currency Purchases Amid Ruble Decline

In a bid to stabilize its financial markets, Russia's Central Bank announced on Wednesday that it will cease purchasing foreign currency on the domestic market for the remainder of 2024. This decision comes as the Russian ruble continues to depreciate, reaching its lowest point since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The regulator's move to suspend these purchases, effective from Thursday until December 31, 2024, aims to mitigate market volatility. The Central Bank assured that these deferred purchases would resume over the course of 2025. This isn't the first time such a measure has been taken; earlier this year, the bank halted foreign currency purchases from August 10 to December 31, 2023, due to the adverse impact on the already struggling ruble.

As of the latest reports, the ruble exchanged as low as 113 to the dollar, marking its weakest level in over 32 months. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov noted that a weaker ruble could potentially boost Russian exports. However, the devaluation also poses a risk of increasing inflation, which is already at 8.5%. According to Reuters, this could add an extra 1.5 percentage points to the inflation rate as a result of the ruble’s downturn over the past four months.

The official exchange rate set by the Central Bank for Thursday places the ruble at 108.01 to the dollar and 113.09 to the euro. Despite the halt on buying foreign currency, the bank indicated that it would continue selling foreign currencies through its sovereign wealth fund. It plans to sell approximately 8.4 billion rubles worth of foreign currency per day in the latter half of 2024.