Foreign Exchange Policy of the USSR

The process of restructuring the Soviet economy reveals a lot of weak points. The selfisolation of the country not only led to shortages and imbalances of goods, but caused also a slowing down of competitiveness. The core of any reform is a new monetary policy and in this context the breaking up of state forex monopoly. The following article reviews the Soviet foreign exchange policy and the measures necessary to speed up the reform. It is obvious that authorities have to move towards a single exchange rate, which will mean devaluation and convertibility of the rouble. One cannot really expect a quick switch to a market based rouble exchange rate and unfortunately the reform is very often hampered by those who can't get familiar with such new ideas. But the Soviet economy is in a transitional period and hopefully the new system will acquire the desired shape within the next two or three years.