MOSCOW, RUSSIA - THERE is no need for a devaluation of the Russian ruble, a top official in the country's central bank said on Saturday after the currency slid to its lowest level against the US dollar in two years.

'Just because of the global financial crisis, whose waves have reached us, it does not follow that the ruble must be devalued relative to other currencies,' Mr Alexei Ulyukayev, deputy head of the Russian Central Bank, told Echo of Moscow radio.

On Friday, the official exchange rate stood at 27.0596 rubles to the dollar, a level not seen since mid-2006, according to the Central Bank's website.