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Russia in currency-swap clampdown

With rouble under increasing strain, the Central Bank of Russia has announced stringent new limits on the maximum amount of currency swaps that may be traded each day.

The initiatives, announced on Monday, led to the biggest single-day increase in the value of the rouble against the dollar on Tuesday.

The central bank will announce limits on the daily amount of allowed currency swaps at 10:00 each day. On Tuesday, the limited was set at 50 billion roubles ($1.9 billion).

The Russian authorities belief that currency swaps have been used to short-selling currency traders to speculate against further declines in the value of the rouble.

The rouble has lost around 12% of its value against the dollar and more than $60 billion in foreign investment has flowed out of Russia since early August.

A number of sources reported in the local and international media, however, suggest that the rouble is trading at much lower rates at retail foreign exchange outlets and more informal exchanges as Russians seek to hoard foreign currencies in the expectation of further declines in the value of the domestic currency.

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