Rouble devalued, suffers biggest drop in 3 months

Russia's central bank devalued the rouble by the most in more than three months to protect foreign-exchange reserves as the biggest drop in industrial production since 1998 and falling oil revenue batter the economy.

Bank Rossii let the rouble drop 1.2 percent against the target basket of dollars and euros used to manage fluctuations, exceeding six depreciations since Nov 11 of about 1 percent each.

The rouble weakened 11 percent versus the basket and 15 percent against the dollar since August, when the war with Georgia, tumbling crude prices and the worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression drove away investors.