RT — Russia bringing back the gold standard may kill US dollar & solve main problem of cryptocurrencies

The headline is a bit sensational (clickbait) but the head of the Central Bank of Russia is positive about considering it, although she doesn't see it as the priority.

The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) is studying a proposal to create a gold-backed cryptocurrency, which could be used for cross-border settlements with other countries.

The bold proposal was made by Russia’s State Duma member Vladimir Gutenev. He has suggested initiating discussion to set up national cryptocurrency, denominated in gold.

Commenting on Gutenev’s proposal, the head of CBR Elvira Nabiullina said: “As for mutual settlements, we will consider, of course, a proposal on a cryptocurrency that is tied to gold. But, in my opinion, it is more important to develop settlements in national currencies.”

RT
Russia bringing back the gold standard may kill US dollar & solve main problem of cryptocurrencies

Joaquin Flores — Russian Central Bank: Sanctions Do Not Have Decisive Impact on Economy

Sanctions do not have a decisive impact on economic growth in Russia, said Elvira Nabiullina. The head of the regulator spoke at a press conference with journalists today.

“With regard to sanctions risks, geopolitical, we, of course, take this into account as one of the significant factors in forecasting the development of the economy. But I want to say that, in general, the economy is adapting to these sanctions, and we see that the growth rates are now close to potential. This factor cannot be ignored, but it has a limited effect,” said Nabiullina....

Fort Russ

Russian Central Bank: Sanctions Do Not Have Decisive Impact on Economy
Joaquin Flores

Paul Antonopoulos — [Central] Banker: Russian inflation will be about 3% in early 2018 - economy continues to grow despite US sanctions

Russian economy on track in spite of sanctions.

Fort Russ
[Central] Banker:Russian inflation will be about 3% in early 2018 - economy continues to grow despite US sanctions
Paul Antonopoulos

Tom Luongo — Bank of Russia’s Worries Stifling Growth

The Bank of Russia continues to sabotage Russia's economic recovery by over-estimating the effects of a hostile U.S. Congress.

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?

Elvira Nabiullina. 

Russia Insider
Bank of Russia’s Worries Stifling Growth
Tom Luongo

Russia Feed — Russia’s Central Bank cuts key rate to 8.5%

This is about the Russian economy, not just the rate reduction. Significant for those following Russia, the Russian economic outlook, and the RUB.

Russia Feed
Russia’s Central Bank cuts key rate to 8.5%
Alexander

Also

Russia’s Central Bank says oil price could sink in 2018

Elvira Nabiullina — Bank of Russia's strategic objectives and plans for the next five years

Speech by Ms Elvira Nabiullina, Governor of the Bank of Russia, at the International Financial Congress, Moscow, 13 July 2017.

BIS
Elvira Nabiullina: Bank of Russia's strategic objectives and plans for the next five years

TASS — Russia's central bank keeps key rate at 9%

The Russian Central Bank points to the recovery of economic activity

TASS
Russia's central bank keeps key rate at 9%

BIS — Elvira Nabiullina: Review of Russia's economic and financial developments in 2016

Speech by Ms Elvira Nabiullina, Governor of the Bank of Russia, at the plenary session of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 9 June 2017

BIS
Elvira Nabiullina: Review of Russia's economic and financial developments in 2016

KtoVKurse — Russian economy must diversify or face decline - Central Bank

The Chairman of the Bank of Russia, Elvira Nabiullina, has stated that Russia's economy in the foreseeable future will be faced with a number of external and internal threats....

Fort Russ
Russian economy must diversify or face decline - Central Bank

KtoVKurse - translated by Inessa Sinchougova

Elvira Nabiullina — Overview of Russia's fiscal and monetary policy

On May 2, the Central Bank of Russia recently cut the interest rate by 50 basis points (0.50%) to 9.25% owing to the declining inflation rate (4.1%), which now approaching the bank's target of 4%.

Read the report online at the link below or download PDF.

BIS
Elvira Nabiullina: Overview of Russia's fiscal and monetary policy
Speech by Ms Elvira Nabiullina, Governor of the Bank of Russia, at the panel meeting of the Russian Federation's Ministry of Finance, Moscow, 20 April 2017.

Asia Unhedged — Russian central bank cuts rates against expectations

Despite analyst expectations that the Russian central bank (CBR) would hold steady, the bank cut the key rate by 25bps to 9.5%.…

Asia Times
Russian central bank cuts rates against expectations
Asia Unhedged

Sputnik — Russia Secures Financial System From Potential SWIFT Shutoff - Central Bank Head

Russia has introduced safeguards against the risk of being shut out of international transaction systems such as Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) after anti-Russian sanctions introduced by the West, Russian Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina said Wednesday.…

"There was the threat of being shut out of SWIFT. We updated our transaction system, and if anything happens, all SWIFT-format operations will continue to work, we created an analogous system," Nabiullina said during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Sputnik International
Russia Secures Financial System From Potential SWIFT Shutoff - Central Bank Head

TASS — Russia’s Elvira Nabiullina named 2016 European Central Banker by The Banker magazine

UK-based finance magazine The Banker named Elvira Nabiullina, who is the head of the Central Bank of Russia, as the European central banker of the year in 2016.

The Banker cited as one of the most important reasons to rank Nabilullina as the top 2016 European Central Banker her achievements in controlling Russia’s inflation rate.

"The efforts of the Central Bank head has led to the fact that the rate of inflation by the end of 2016 fell below 6% from 12.9% in 2015," according to the British magazine....

TASS
Russia’s Elvira Nabiullina named 2016 European Central Banker — The Banker magazine

TASS — Low unemployment in Russia stem from poor labor productivity, Central Bank head says

Low unemployment rates in Russia do not speak about the efficiency of its economy, on the contrary, they stem from poor labor productivity when more people are needed to manufacture one unit of output, head of the Russian Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina said on Sunday.

"We have a production slump but rather low unemployment. There are not many efficient free capacities. Unemployment is low because labor productivity is low. We have a vast potential to boost labor productivity," she said.…

Productivity is basic to growth of both output and standard of living. Productivity increase requires technological innovation, as well as improvement in efficiency management.

TASS
Low unemployment in Russia stem from poor labor productivity, Central Bank head says

The old model of the Russian economic growth, based on oil prices, is exhausted, and a new model should be based on investment, governor of the Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina said on Oct. 2.

Russia Beyond the Headlines
Old model of Russian economic growth exhausted itself - Central Bank head

Russia needs to transition from an extraction-based economy susceptible to Dutch disease to a modern diversified economy with greater breadth and depth (horizontal and vertical integration) that is both independent and sustainable, without being autarkic. The people in charge know this.

Paul Craig Roberts and Michael Hudson — Can Russia Learn From Brazil’s Fate?

… Brazil’s financial openness made Brazil an easy target to attack. One might hope that Vladimir Putin would take note of the cost of “economic openness.” Putin is a careful and thoughtful leader of Russia, but he is not an economist. He has confidence in neoliberal Elvira Nabiulina, Washington’s choice to head the Russian central bank. Nabiulina is unfamiliar with Modern Monetary Theory, and her commitment to “economic openness” leaves the Russian economy as exposed as Brazil’s to Washington destabilization. Nabiuina believes that the assault on the ruble is due to impersonal “global market forces,” not to Washington’s financial clout.

Nabiulina, an indoctrinated and propagandized neoliberal, is essentially a servant of Washington, not that she is aware of her role as “useful idiot.” She delights in the applause she receives from the Washington Consensus for leaving the Russian economy open to Washington’s manipulation. Being a neoliberal, she does not understand that Russia’s central bank can create at zero cost the money with which to finance productive projects in Russia. Instead, she thinks that the money entering the economy from the central bank is inflationary, but the money entering the economy from foreign sources is not.

Money is money regardless of whether it is made available by the central bank or by foreign creditors. As long as the money, whatever its source, is used productively, the money is not inflationary.

There is a huge difference between the money created by the central bank and the money created by foreign creditors. Money lent by foreign banks in the form or US dollars or euros must be repaid with interest in the foreign exchange in which the money was lent. Money created by the central bank to finance public infrastructure projects does not have to be repaid at all, much less with interest and in foreign exchange earned by exports….

Paul Craig Roberts

Can Russia Learn From Brazil’s Fate?

Paul Craig Roberts and Michael Hudson

Alexander Mercouris — Russia cuts interest rates whilst maintaining tough monetary policy

The Russian Central Bank has, as predicted, cut its key rate from 10.5% to 10%.

This is consistent with the continuing rapid fall in inflation. With inflation zero in the first two weeks of September after being zero in the last week of July and through most of August, its annualised rate is now just 6.6%. The Central Bank has said that it intends to keep its key rate 3% above the annualised rate of inflation for the foreseeable future, so that with annualised inflation running at 6.7% it had the space to announce this rate cut.

However that is where the good news stops. The Central Bank has signalled that it intends no more cuts to its key rate this year, meaning that the earliest possible date for a further rate cut will not be before January next year. The Central Bank also says that it will maintain what it calls its “moderately tight monetary policy” – a policy which is in fact giving Russia the highest real interest rates of any major economy in the world – throughout 2017 and indeed beyond.…

This would be especially so given that the moderate loosening of monetary policy this would call for would be most unlikely to compromise the anti-inflation policy in any serious way. At worst it might delay achievement of the 4% by a few months, or perhaps a year.

Russia however is different. With unemployment very low at 5.7% at a time when the country’s labour force participation rate is at an unprecedentedly high 70%, and with political and macroeconomic conditions stable, the Central Bank and the government obviously feel they have the political and economic space to see the policy through, and it seems they are determined to see it through come what may. Not for nothing is Nabiullina being called “the most orthodox Central Banker in Europe”.

As for Putin, as I said in my previous article I have no doubt he supports the policy. With the political situation in Russia stable and his popularity at stratospheric levels, he is moreover under no real pressure to change it. If only for that reason I don’t expect the policy to change.

Russia pursuing "expansionary fiscal austerity"?

The Duran

Russia cuts interest rates whilst maintaining tough monetary policy

Alexander Mercouris

TASS — Head of Central Bank: Key rate remains 'anchor' for other money rates on market

The key rate of the Central Bank remains "an anchor" for other money market rates, head of the Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina told a banking forum.

"It is important that in the course of transition to a structural surplus of liquidity, we see that the easing of monetary policy is happening virtually automatically. And the key rate becomes a benchmark for the rates which are applied to investment of funds not fundraising. This change in the role of the key rate is essentially equivalent of its reduction. But the key rate - and I would like to stress this - in any case remains "the anchor" for other money market rates," she said.

Translation: The Central Bank of Russia is now less concerned with setting the interest rate to stabilize the currency and ameliorate outbound capital flow. The lower rate will encourage domestic investment.

TASS

Head of Central Bank: Key rate remains 'anchor' for other money rates on market

Paul Craig Roberts and Michael Hudson — Russia’s Weakness Is Its Economic Policy

According to various reports, the Russian government is reconsidering the neoliberal policy that has served Russia so badly since the collapse of the Soviet Union. If Russia had adopted an intelligent economic policy, Russia’s economy would be far ahead of where it stands today. It would have avoided most of the capital flight to the West by relying on self-finance.…

Paul Craig Roberts Blog
Russia’s Weakness Is Its Economic Policy — Paul Craig Roberts and Michael Hudson

F. William Engdahl — Putin: Nyet to Neo-liberals, Da to National Development

Must-read for anyone interested in Russia and the Russian economy.

With very little fanfare, Russian press a few days ago carried a note that could have a most profound positive significance for the future of the Russian domestic economy. The online Russian blog, Katheon, carried the following short notice: “Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed (the Stolypin economist group–w.e.) to finalize the report of the Stolypin Club and on its basis to prepare a new program of economic development, alternative to Kudrin’s economic plan. The program itself should be given to the Bureau of Economic Council in the IV quarter of 2016.”

In their comment, Katheon notes the major significance of the decision to drop the clearly destructive neo-liberal or free market approach of former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin: “The Stolypin club report advises to increase the investment, pumping up the economy with money from the state budget and by the issue of the Bank of Russia. In turn, the concept of the Center for Strategic Research (Alexei Kudrin) suggested that investments should be private and the state is to ensure macroeconomic stability, low inflation, reduced budget deficit.”…

Breath a sigh of relief. Putin was not bringing back Kudrin as some thought, but just giving him a say as a matter of "fair and balanced" and good politics.

There are three major economic groups in Russia, the neoliberals led by former finance minister Alexei Kudrin, the monetarists led by central bank chief Elvira Nabiullina, and the Stolypin Club, in which Sergei Glazyev (also transliterated Glaziev) plays a leading role. 

After a competition, Putin chose to go with the Stolypin group, which in Western terms is Keynesian but not New Keynesian. These economists would likely be open to Post Keynesianism and MMT if they are not already familiar with it.

This is an extremely positive sign for the Russian economy, although it will be severely criticized in the West. The Kudrin neoliberals and Nabiullina monetarists have been strangling investment and growth Russia, and severely disadvantaging workers-consumers, by relying on the confidence fairy.

Putin needs to get a tight grip on the oligarchs, too, at least to the degree that their interests conflict with Russia's present situation. They are a major source of corruption. Putin has already pruned back the worst, but that is not saying much. Culling is still needed.

Putin should be looking to China rather than the West. Europe is a basket case, the UK is reeling, and the mighty US is plagued with a slow recovery and rising inequality that is translating into social unrest and political divisiveness. On the other hand, China has been managing a difficult transition fairly seamlessly and is on track to eradicate poverty as part of this five-year plan.

NEO
Putin: Nyet to Neo-liberals, Da to National Development

F. William Engdahl

Elvira Nabiullina — Review of Russia's economic and financial developments in 2015

Today we present the latest Annual Report of the Bank of Russia to the 6th State Duma.

First of all, I would like to thank the deputies for the legislative efforts, which we took together to both develop the financial system and protect the rights of financial services consumers, and for the efficient cooperation with the Bank of Russia. As many as 130 laws affecting the financial sector have been adopted over these three years.

Now, let's look at the Bank of Russia's performance in 2015.

BIS
Elvira Nabiullina: Review of Russia's economic and financial developments in 2015
Statement by Ms Elvira Nabiullina, Governor of the Bank of Russia, at the plenary meeting of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 14 June 2016.