Scaled-up banking rescue to push Russian budget into deficit

Russia's central bank said on Friday its bailout of Trust Bank - the first major lender to fail as a result of the sharp decline in the rouble - would cost about $2.5 billion, far more than previously anticipated, and the country's finance minister said emergency measures to rescue the banking system would push the federal budget into deficit. The central bank had previously announced about $500 million in direct aid to Trust Bank, but on Friday it raised that figure to nearly $2 billion and said it would also provide a six-year loan of about $550 million to an "investor" bank that would step in to take control of Trust Bank.

Other banks are also expected to need bailouts as a result of the recent currency crisis, which was brought about by a double whammy of lower worldwide oil prices and Western economic sanctions aimed at punishing the Kremlin for its policies in Ukraine.

The Russian authorities have been scrambling to contain the damage, including a sharp increase in interest rates and aggressive spending of foreign currency reserves to shore up the rouble, which has stabilised in recent days. On Friday, the rouble was trading in the low to mid 50's to the dollar, still sharply down for the year but substantially stronger than just a week ago when it was trading at about 60.

Data released by the central bank on Friday showed that the government's overall stockpile of foreign currency reserves had fallen by nearly $16 billion to $398.9 billion. Overall, the Russian government has approved 1 trillion roubles, or about $20 billion, to rescue the banking system. Speaking to journalists on Friday, the Russian finance minister, Anton Siluanov, said that the rescue measures would swing the 2014 federal budget into a deficit of about $10 billion or roughly 0.7 per cent of the nation's annual economic output.

"At the moment, we need to rescue systemically significant enterprises," Siluanov said, according to Russian news agencies.

Senior officials, including Prime Minister Dmitri A Medvedev warned this week of increasing economic pain in the months ahead, including a recession and potentially crippling inflation. At the same time, officials have sought in recent days to reassure the public that, for the moment at least, the currency situation is under control.

The government this week also announced that it was using its control of five of the country's biggest exporters, including the energy giants Gazprom and Rosneft, to reduce their foreign currency holdings as a way to prop up the rouble in coming months.

In addition to announcing increased aid for Trust Bank, Siluanov said he expected the state-controlled VTB Bank would receive nearly $2 billion in government assistance, and Gazprombank would receive about $1.4 billion. He also said the government would be forced to rethink its budget, including military spending, as a result of lower oil prices.

The Russian budget is overly dependent on oil and gas exports. Other budget experts, including Siluanov's predecessor, Aleksei L Kudrin, have also previously called for curtailing military spending, which has risen sharply under President Vladimir Putin. Until now, Putin has resisted such pressure and pushed for higher military salaries as well as an aggressive modernisation programme.

© 2014 The New York Times News Service