(Adds interventions, weekly close, confidence and jobs data)
By Toni Vorobyova and Andrey Ostroukh
MOSCOW, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Russia's creeping devaluation of the rouble gathered speed on Friday, leaving the currency with losses of nearly 7 percent for the week and boding badly for consumer confidence, which is already at an 8-year low.
The devaluations are bringing the rouble in line with the new reality for Russia's once-buoyant economy, now on the verge of its first recession in a decade because of low prices and falling demand for oil and other export commodities.
A source at the central bank confirmed the trading band had been widened again -- the fifth move since trade resumed after new year holidays on Sunday, and the 17th step since November.
The rouble ended the week at 37.32 versus a euro-dollar basket. It has lost a fifth of its value since August.
"Such a fast pace of rouble depreciation in the last few days suggests that the finishing line is only weeks away, perhaps before the end of January," said Evgeny Nadorshin, analyst at Trust Bank.
"I see the current moves as a sprint to the finishing line."
Ensuring that the rouble's depreciation remains gradual has cost Russia over a quarter of its reserves in the last five months. Dealers estimate the central bank spent $26 billion on interventions this week, out of the remaining $426.5 billion.
The rouble sank to a fresh low of 32.7 to the dollar after breaking below the 32 mark the previous day for the first time since Russia began to open its economy to market forces in the 1990s. The euro hit a record 43.24 roubles. President Dmitry Medvedev has described 31-32 roubles per dollar as a "red mark" which Russians last saw relatively recently and are thus ready to accept psychologically.
Russians are mindful of the last major financial crisis, when in 1998 the rouble lost more than 2/3 of its value, and have been shifting savings and cash out of the rouble.
Consumer confidence hit an 8-year low in the final quarter of 2008, data showed on Friday, while a minister said the number of people claiming jobless benefits rose 15 percent in December.
CHANGING SAVINGS IF THEY EXIST
Property firm DSK-1 said this week that from Feb. 1, prices for flats will be based on the value of the rouble versus the euro-dollar basket, in a reminder of the widespread dollarisation seen after the 1998 crisis when many shops listed prices in special currency units close in value to the dollar.
"Of course I have changed my savings into foreign currency. I don't want to lose my wealth," said banker Alexei, 31, outside an exchange point in snowy central Moscow.
"Food will become more expensive, and medicines, health will become more expensive," said businessman Evegeny, who was changing money into euros and dollars ahead of a trip abroad.
However, given that the average monthly salary is around 18,000 rouble ($560) and that only around a third of the population have savings accounts, many Russians simply have no spare cash to change.
"I haven't changed my savings, they simply don't exist," said courier Yury, 56.
Russia's business press has kept abreast of the devaluations, with Vedomosti on Friday proclaiming "Run from the rouble!" But most of the papers with a more general or tabloid focus kept the currency's record lows off their front pages if they mentioned them at all.
"Whether you write about it or not, everyone can see the prices outside currency exchange points, and can make their own conclusions," said Vladimir Tikhomirov, economist at UralSib.
"A fairly pessimistic scenario for the Russian economy is being established, with oil at $30 a barrel. When applied to the rouble exchange rate that could mean 36-38 roubles to the dollar," he added, forecasting that such a rate could be reached by the end of this month.
Such a depreciation would bring Russia ever closer to its medium-term goal of a free-floating currency, analysts say. -- For a FACTBOX on rouble moves see (Additional reporting by Yelena Fabrichnaya; Editing by Ruth Pitchford and Andy Bruce)