Russian Ruble Continues To Sink

An employee uses a machine to count Russian roubles at a private company's office in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, November 6, 2014. REUTERS/ILYA NAYMUSHIN/FILES

Reuters: Ruble hits new low, Kremlin denies currency collapse

The ruble slumped to new record lows on Thursday, threatening more hardship for ordinary Russians and prompting some to stock up on dollars as the Kremlin denied the currency was collapsing.

At one point the rouble had chalked up one of its biggest intraday drops in around a year, smashing through 83 per dollar for the first time and trading as low as 86, though it later recovered some ground.

Its slide adds to the woes of an economy, squeezed by Western sanctions, that shrank by an estimated 3.9 percent last year. It will also keep inflation high, because many of the products Russians consume are imported, and may force the central bank to postpone interest rate cuts badly needed to stimulate growth.

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WNU Editor: Many currencies around the world have collapsed (I live in Canada, and our dollar has lost 30% of its value in the past 18 months) .... but it has hit the Russian economy particularly hard because of its dependency on imported consumer goods. Russia will survive .... but they are going to experience some hard times in the next year or two.