By RIA Novosti,
Moscow : The Russian government is taking more steps following its initial market intervention to ease the credit crunch amid the ongoing global financial crisis, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said Sunday.
“We believe that measures which have been taken for the first stage are sufficient and we have an entire range of tools for action. We can respond effectively, flexibly and swiftly. For subsequent actions, we are drafting a special programme,” Shuvalov said, adding that it would be adopted in the next few weeks.
Russia’s stock markets have lost around two thirds of their value since their May highpoints amid declining oil prices and other investor concerns in the wake of the global market crisis.
The Russian central bank has recently taken urgent measures to pump billions of dollars into the domestic stock market to shore up liquidity of leading market makers.
The central bank has also granted $50 billion in subordinated loans to Russian companies and banks through the country’s national development vehicle, Vnesheconombank, to help them refinance their foreign liabilities.
Starting Oct 20, the central bank has been holding unsecured loan auctions for a large group of Russian banks to help domestic banking cope with the liquidity crisis.