The U.S. slaps sanctions on Russia's central bank, threatens more action

• The United States on Monday imposed sanctions on Russia's central bank and other sources of wealth, dealing a crushing blow to the country's economy and further punishing Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine. 
• The measures, blocking Americans from engaging in any transactions involving Russia's central bank, finance ministry or national wealth fund, are likely to push Russian inflation higher, cripple its purchasing power and drive down investments, U.S. officials said on Monday as the new measures took effect. 
• The actions included a carve-out for energy payments. Last week Washington imposed several rounds of sanctions, including against Russian President Vladimir Putin and major banks, after Russia's forces invaded Ukraine in the biggest assault on a European state since World War Two. 
• A senior U.S. administration official has said that their objective is to make sure that the Russian economy goes backwards if President Putin decides to continue to go forward with an invasion in Ukraine and that they have the tools to continue to do that. 
• Washington and its allies said on Saturday they would take action against the central bank and bar some of Russia's banks from the SWIFT international payments system, a list officials said was still being finalized with EU partners. Russia's central bank more than doubled its key policy rate on Monday and introduced some capital controls, but its governor said sanctions had stopped it from selling foreign currency to prop up the rouble.

(Source: Reuters)