| Economic and political headwinds are battering Russia whose currency has been weakened by the freefalling oil price and western sanctions. The Russian central bank raised interest rates to 17% in an attempt to prevent the rouble’s collapse. But the dramatic move failed to stem the decline, with the currency hitting new all-time lows against the dollar.
Russia’s central bank has taken the drastic step of raising its main interest rate to 17%, a rise of 6.5 percentage points. The announcement – made around 1am local time – is a desperate attempt to restore confidence in the rouble, which has almost halved in value against the dollar in six months. Last week, the central bank raised rates by 1%, but this failed to calm jitters about an economy that is suffering from falling oil prices and western sanctions............................................Full Article: Source
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