Russia

Russia will take legal action if the West tries to force it to default on its sovereign debt, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told the pro-Kremlin Izvestia newspaper on Monday, sharpening Moscow's tone in its financial wrestle with the West, Reuters reported. "Of course we will sue, because we have taken all the necessary steps to ensure that investors receive their payments," Siluanov told the newspaper in an interview. "We will present in court our bills confirming our efforts to pay both in foreign currency and in roubles. It will not be an easy process.

Russia will halt bond auctions for the remainder of 2022 due to prohibitive borrowing costs, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov was quoted as saying by Izvestia, Bloomberg News reported. “We do not plan to go to the local market or foreign markets this year,” Siluanov told the Russian outlet. “It makes no sense because the borrowing cost would be cosmic.” With Russia under financial and economic sanctions by the U.S.

Germany's energy network regulator on Friday said it would ensure ongoing operations at Gazprom Germania, a trading, storage and transmission business abandoned by Russia's Gazprom, and called on market operators not to cut ties, Reuters reported. With assets and subsidiaries in Germany, Britain, Switzerland, Belgium, the Czech Republic and outside Europe, the firm's activities are essential for the European gas market and its supply to industry and households.

The Russian central bank sharply cut its key rate to 17% on Friday and said future cuts were possible, as emergency steps had contained the risk to financial stability, brought deposits back to banks and helped limit the threat of inflation, it said, Reuters reported. Last month, the central bank kept its key interest rate at 20% following a massive emergency hike in February and said it would start buying OFZ government bonds, warning of an imminent spike in inflation and a looming economic contraction. Russia sent troops into Ukraine on Feb.

The derivatives market is flashing signals that the tit-for-tat between the U.S. Treasury and the Kremlin is increasing the likelihood of a Russian government default after Russia’s Ministry of Finance announced Wednesday it will restrict the ability of some foreign investors to convert their payments into dollars, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The fallout of the Russia and Ukraine war has just helped tip two of world's poorest countries into full-blown crises, and the list of those at risk - and the queue at the International Monetary Fund's door - will only get longer from here, Reuters reported. They may be far from the fighting in Ukraine, but a mass resignation of Sri Lanka's cabinet on Monday read more and drastic weekend manoeuvres by Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan to avoid his removal read more , show how far the economic impact spreads.

Annual inflation in Russia accelerated to 16.70% as of April 1, its highest since March 2015 and up from 15.66% a week earlier, the economy ministry said on Wednesday, as the volatile rouble sent prices soaring amid unprecedented Western sanctions, Reuters reported. Inflation in Russia has accelerated sharply in the past few weeks as the rouble's fall to an all-time low boosted demand for a wide range of goods from food staples to cars on expectations prices will rise even more.

Russia said on Wednesday that it made a debt payment in rubles this week, a move that may not be accepted by Russia’s foreign debtholders and could put the country on a path to a historic default, the Associated Press reported. The Ministry of Finance said in a statement that it tried to make a $649 million payment toward two bonds to an unnamed U.S. bank — previously reported as JPMorgan Chase — but that payment was not accepted because new U.S. sanctions prohibit Russia from using U.S. banks to pay its debts.

Britain has frozen the assets of Russia’s biggest bank, banned outward investment to the country and promised to end imports of Russian oil and coal by the end of this year, the Irish Times reported. The measures are part of a new package of sanctions in response to alleged war crimes by Russian forces which Boris Johnson described as coming close to genocide. The move against Sberbank was coordinated with the United States, which also announced on Wednesday that it was freezing the bank’s assets.