Boosting the ruble’s international recognition is the goal when Russia’s Central Bank on Wednesday announced the symbol that will place the ruble alongside the euro €, the Pound £ and the U.S. dollar $.
The chosen symbol uses the Cyrillic letter “P” with a crossed horizontal strip, the Central bank announces on their portal. “P” in Cyrillic is “R” in Latin letter.
The Central Bank says that several symbols were put on display for public voting over the last month, resulting in a 61 percent vote for the “P” with the lower part crossed by a horizontal strip.
Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev has over the last few years by several occasions called for the ruble to become one of the world’s reserve currencies and make Moscow to a financial centrum similar to London, New York and Tokyo.
The new symbol will appear on new coins and banknotes from now on. The Central Bank says a new one-ruble coin will be the first with the new symbol.
