Updated 11:08 p.m. Moscow Time
MILAN, October 17 (RIA Novosti) – Russia's Central Bank will use elements of a fluctuating exchange rate to support the national currency and will not "burn" its reserves, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday.
"Russia's Central Bank will pursue a balanced financial policy. This means that it will use elements of a floating exchange rate and will not recklessly burn its reserves," Putin told journalists after meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Milan.
"However, the reserves are not enough to make adjustments to the national currency level. I do not see any possible dramatic changes here. I am confident that with the change in oil prices, [the bank] will also adjust the rate of the national currency, the rate of the ruble," Putin added.
Russia's Reserve Fund totals some 3.5 trillion rubles ($74 bln) as of September 2014.
Earlier on Monday, Russia's Finance Ministry said that the government could spend up to 1.5 trillion rubles (over $37 billion) in 2015-2017 to finance the federal budget in light of falling oil prices and the weakening of the national currency.
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Monday that some 500 billion rubles ($12.4 billion) from the Reserve Fund may be spent in 2015 provided that oil prices and the rate of exchange of the ruble against the US dollar stay at current levels.
The price of Russia's main export crude Urals fell to $90 per barrel in September. However, the draft budget for 2015 was planned with a price of $100 per barrel in mind.
Earlier in October, Putin said that Russia has enough reserves to implement all the points under the state budget regardless of global political and economic trends.