Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday asked fellow Russians to exercise patience as the ruble continues to drop in response to falling oil prices and Western sanctions, The News reported.
“It’s definitely not necessary to go into hysterics, ” Medvedev said in an end of the year televised interview, with the feed going to five different television channels.
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“Here, people just need to have patience and look at how events developed in a similar situation in 2008-2009 when the ruble weakened significantly, ” he said.
He suggested the ruble has now plunged below its realistic value.
“Most economists and analysts agree that at the moment the ruble is excessively weakened, that is, it is undervalued, ” Medvedev assured Russians.
He also warned that they shouldn’t change their savings into foreign currency, because they’ll end up losing when the ruble makes a comeback.
The ruble has dropped some 40 percent against the dollar and 32 percent against the euro since the start of 2014. Today, Wednesday, it is 54.28 rubles to the dollar and 67.20 rubles to the euro.
Medvedev assured his audience his own money was in rubles.
“We are in the same boat, ” he said. But he conceded that Russians were suffering from rising prices, and even though a weak ruble was good for exports, it was hurting the country.
“In the long term… it’s obvious that a significant weakening in the ruble exchange rate is not advantageous for our economy, ” he said.
