By Andrey OstroukhMOSCOW--The Russian ruble was volatile in early trading Friday, amid continuing pressure from falling oil prices and another verbal intervention from financial authorities.
The ruble eased to 62.9 against the dollar in the first few minutes of trading on the Moscow exchange but then returned close to its Thursday closing level of 61.4.
The currency has become increasingly volatile since Russia's central bank let the ruble float last month. It has been hitting record lows on an almost daily basis as the price of oil, Russia's key export, plunged below $60 a barrel. The ruble selloff prompted authorities to step in with a combination of verbal intervention and real action.
Russia's finance minister, Anton Siluanov, said Friday that he sees no risk from selling excessive holdings of foreign currency as the ruble is set to rebound in early 2015, Interfax news agency reported. So far this year the ruble has lost nearly 50% of its value against the dollar.
Earlier this week the Russian finance ministry said it was ready to sell as much as $7 billion to stabilize the ruble after the central bank carried out massive monetary tightening, hiking its key interest rate to 17%.
Central bank data showed Friday that it hadn't intervened in the currency market on Wednesday, making it the second day of no direct central bank support for the ruble. Since the beginning of the month the central bank sold around $10 billion in a bid to halt the ruble's rapid depreciation.
Write to Andrey Ostroukh at andrey.ostroukh@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 19, 2014 02:38 ET (07:38 GMT)
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