Bank Of Russia Halts Forex Buying As Ruble Hits Lowest Levels Since March

        By Andrey Ostroukh
        MOSCOW--The Bank of Russia said Wednesday it has suspended purchases of dollars and euros for reserves as the ruble hit multi-month lows.
        The central bank said it stopped buying foreign currency on the domestic market on July 28, the day when the ruble weakened beyond psychologically important levels of 60 against the dollar and 67 against the euro for the first time since March.
        The ruble strengthened in response to news of the suspension, trading at 59.5 against the dollar early Wednesday.
        After allowing the ruble to float in late 2014, the central bank has continued daily interventions in the currency market. It has been buying up to $200 million a day since mid-May to prop up reserves that shrank in the past year as the result of massive capital flight and economic headwinds, prompted by a plunge in oil prices and Western sanctions.
        The central bank data, which reveal the size of interventions with a two-day lag, showed Wednesday that the bank reduced purchases to $160 million on July 27 from $200 million-a-day last week as the ruble's decline intensified.
        The central bank plans to bring its gold and foreign-exchange reserves back to around $500 billion in the next three to five years. As of July 17, the reserves stood at $358.2 billion.
        Write to Andrey Ostroukh at andrey.ostroukh@wsj.com
        (END) Dow Jones Newswires

        July 29, 2015 03:24 ET (07:24 GMT)

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