国际英语新闻：Russia to abolish coins of small denominations

MOSCOW, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Central Bank (CB) submitted a proposal to the State Duma, stopping the circulation of coins worth one and five kopeks, Moscow's Vedomosti business daily reported on Monday.

One Russian ruble consists of 100 kopeks.

CB's First Deputy Chairman Georgy Luntovsky said minting of all coins has been loss-making, with the only exception of two highest denominations, coins of five and ten rubles.

Currently, these coins make around one percent of all money in cash circulation.

This is the second time the CB applies to the State Duma with the proposal to eliminate the small change, after it was rejected in 2008.

According to deputy head of State Duma's financial committee Pavel Medvedev, the proposal will be supported "by 100 percent certainty" during Monday's discussion.

Experts said the elimination of kopeks coins should be smooth as the population have already been dropping small changes for some time. According to the polls, up to 90 percent Russian people would not bother to save the change less than 10 kopeks.