The decision to raise the key rate from 10.5% to 17% was taken by the Central Bank on the eve of a potential banking crisis and, therefore, was intended to preserve financial stability in the country. This was announced today by the Minister of Economic Development Alexei Ulyukayev.
According to Ulyukayev, in the near future the government "should create conditions that would help reduce the rate of the Bank of Russia."
The minister also stressed that the people of the country in 2014 gained a serious amount of currency. "There are statistics how many people bought foreign currency in cash: at the end of the year it will be about $30 billion. This is about a quarter of the capital outflow," he explained.
