{"id":51968,"date":"2015-08-19T05:20:05","date_gmt":"2015-08-19T11:20:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/?p=51968"},"modified":"2020-09-21T13:33:53","modified_gmt":"2020-09-21T17:33:53","slug":"putin-economic-aide-40-oil-might-halt-russia-rate-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/putin-economic-aide-40-oil-might-halt-russia-rate-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"Putin Economic Aide: $40 Oil Might Halt Russia Rate Cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Putin<\/a><\/h1>\n

Andrey Belousov, a key economic aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, is predicting that a dip in oil prices to $40 a barrel could mean his country\u2019s central bank stops its run of interest rate cuts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the situation on the foreign-exchange markets changes as a result of a significant drop in oil prices – to $40 a barrel, with fluctuations between $40 and $45 – then the central bank will probably halt the process of cutting the rate,\u201d Belousov told Bloomberg<\/em><\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

His words carry added weight given an accurate prediction this past January of a rate cut that surprised most analysts. That led to a string of four more cuts over the course of the year, against the backdrop of a sagging economy and weakening ruble. Oil\u2019s drop – over 30% just this summer – and Western sanctions have bit hard into the Russian economy.<\/p>\n

The Bank of Russia has not made any official statements about its plans. But Business Insider<\/em><\/a> points out that the central bank\u2019s early-August rate cut \u201cwas less than expected\u201d and the announcement lacked the phrase \u201cready to continue cutting\u201d that had accompanied earlier cuts.<\/p>\n

While the economy is a major concern, and would normally justify slashing rates even further, Moscow is worried about that policy\u2019s effect on a declining ruble.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s currency is down 25 percent against the dollar over the past three months, dipping another 0.5 percent on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the one hand, the recession in the economy and extremely tight credit conditions argue for a rate cut,\u201d analyst Liza Ermolenko told Bloomberg<\/em><\/a> in July. \u201cBut on the other hand, easing policy at the time when the ruble is weakening sharply could cause it to fall even further, creating risks for inflation and financial stability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s central bank is scheduled to meet on September 11 to decide its next interest rate move.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andrey Belousov, a key economic aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, is predicting that a dip in oil prices to $40 a barrel could mean his country\u2019s central bank stops its run of interest rate cuts. \u201cIf the situation on the foreign-exchange markets changes as a result of a significant drop in oil prices – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":51969,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1197],"tags":[8368,4940,8069],"class_list":{"0":"post-51968","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-currency","9":"tag-oil","10":"tag-russia"},"acf":[],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51968"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77008,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51968\/revisions\/77008"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}