Tiraspol, 1 June. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. Today's parliamentary session centred on the situation in the domestic foreign exchange market. The leadership of the government and the central bank was invited to discuss the adoption of emergency measures. Two hours before there had been a joint meeting of the presidiums of the government and the Supreme Council.
As Novosti Pridnestrovys has already reported, the chair of the Pridnestrovian Republican Bank highlighted the necessity of devaluing the rouble by 10% and set a new rate in a range of 12.25−12.75 roubles per dollar.
According to Edward Kosovsky, this measure will decrease a speculative demand for foreign currency and return exchange rate formation to the official framework.
«A 10% devaluation will level out the situation, but without a possibility of replenishing the country's gold and foreign currency reserves. We'll have to work on a just-in-time basis," he explained.
Besides, according to the central bank's chair, a number of mechanisms will be engaged to stabilise the situation, including the postpaid sale of currency and resumption of currency interventions. He noted that a package of stabilisation measures would improve the situation in the non-cash foreign exchange market in several days, but to solve cash problems would require more time.
The chairman of the government, Pavel Prokudin, noted that the situation was urgent, emphasising the necessity of all branches of power making a concerted decision. The prime minister called on MPs to delegate the necessary legal instruments to the central bank to overcome the crisis.
Lawmakers, however, gave a negative response to the PRB's proposal. They made suggestions about the artificial nature of this crisis and that the measure proposed by Edward Kosovsky would not be efficient.
The parliament's speaker, Vadim Krasnoselsky, recalled that the devaluation and subsequent inflation would necessitate the indexation of all social payments and interest receivable on rouble deposits.
«Who has estimated the amount of compensations? Launching a devaluation mechanism, we'll face such a deficit budget that we'll require the devaluation," said Vadim Krasnoselsky, adding that no concrete estimates had been submitted.
The prime minister, in turn, pointed out that at a meeting with the president, which took place a day before, projections had been presented, suggesting that in case the rouble's rate changed within the indicated corridor and a package of anti-crisis measures was implemented, the inflation would not exceed 4.6%, which means that no indexation is required (payments are not indexed if the inflation rate is below 5%).
«We have gathered today to come to a certain conclusion, so that we could tell our citizens that order must be introduced in the foreign exchange market. Today the central bank asks for certain tools to introduce order," noted Pavel Prokudin.
As a result, the PRB's proposal has been rejected and the currency corridor has been left unaltered.
