MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia's economy is getting better, but it is too early to "discharge" it "from hospital," Shuvalov said Friday.
"We could say that we have been discharged from the hospital, when we have a sustainable growth and increase in our citizens income. At the moment we can not see it," Shuvalov told the Rossiya-24 broadcaster, answering a question whether Russia's economy could be considered as "recovered."
At the same time he added that all the problems that had been accumulated in Russia's economy, such as dependence on oil prices, were "cured," and the country had reached the stable macroeconomic situation and low inflation rates.
According to the official, the Russian Finance Ministry and the Central Bank of Russia will continue currency market interventions to stabilize the ruble for a limited period of up to two years.
"By creating reserves, we will accumulate foreign currency in particular in our reserve funds. This will stabilize the exchange rate of the ruble and secure it against excessive strengthening, and we hope that this will last for a while. But it is wrong to think that this will last forever, this will help our exporters for a limited time, just like the counter-sanctions did, for a year or two," Shuvalov stated in an interview with the Rossiya-24 broadcaster.
Earlier this week, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Russia may abstain from spending its reserves in 2017, which would give the Central Bank budget headroom in securing the stability of the ruble. Shuvalov then stated that Russia had been developing a strategy to tackle the ruble's long-term volatility.
On Friday, Russian Economic Development Minister Maxim Oreshkin asserted that there would be no such exchange fluctuations of the ruble as seen in 2014-2015.
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