MOSCOW
The Russian central bank spent a net total of $2.341 billion on currency intervention for the month of January, according to a report published by the regulator on Tuesday.
Net foreign currency purchases in the same month totaled $21.69 million. By comparison, net foreign currency sales in the last month of 2014 amounted to $11,902 billion, as the bank reacted to December's catastrophic devaluation of the ruble.
Since 5 November 2014, the regulator ended unlimited currency intervention, and from 10 November the ruble became a free-floating currency. It is estimated that the ruble lost approximately 50 percent of its value in 2014.
