MOSCOW, November 7 (RIA Novosti) — Russia's Central Bank said on Friday that it was ready to increase the number of interventions on domestic currency markets as there is a potential risk of financial instability in the country caused by a spike in consumer demand for foreign currencies.
"We have noticed signs of a speculative demand [on domestic currency markets] in the past few days, which poses risks for Russia's financial stability," the country's financial regulator said in a statement.
"In this situation, we are ready to increase currency interventions at any time, and also use other financial instruments [to stabilize the demand]," the statement said.
Russia's national currency, the ruble, has lost a quarter of its value since the beginning of 2014.
The weakening of the ruble spiked this week after the Central Bank announced on November 5 it had dramatically reduced its support for the national currency pursuing the transition to the so-called "free floating" currency exchange policy.
On Friday morning ruble fell to record low 48.65 rubles for one dollar and 60.27 for one euro. However, by the afternoon the ruble has already risen to the level of Thursday's exchange rate due to speculation of possible new interventions of the Central Bank.
