"The exchange rate today is behaving accordingly and there are no serious fluctuations…There is an expectation on the market that the ruble in the next few days will become stronger; however, it's not the strengthening of the ruble that is so important for us today, or just the opposite – it's weakening, but most of all the stabilization of the [economic] situation," Shuvalov said during a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
"This is important for the Central Bank, for the export companies themselves, and for those who are planning economic operations," Shuvalov added.
In his year-end press conference last Thursday Russian President Vladimir Putin said the ruble had been weighed down by a number of "external factors," including a drop in oil prices and, to a lesser degree, by a slide in gas prices. He said the Russian economy may rebound from the current downturn as early as in the first quarter of 2015.
