Russian Central Bank to continue emergency measures due to weakening ruble

Russian Central Bank to continue emergency measures due to weakening ruble. 52345.jpeg

The Central Bank of the Russian Federation will not wrap up emergency measures as political risks are still substantial, experts said.

The Russian ruble looks pretty weak against the backdrop of the aggravation of the Russian-Ukrainian relations, compared with other currencies of emerging market. The Turkish lira, Brazilian real, South African rand and Mexican peso strengthened against the dollar by 0.2-0.4 percent yesterday. The ruble lost 0.4 percent against the dollar (36.25 rubles per one dollar) after the Crimean authorities decided to join Russia and conduct the referendum on March 16^th.

The Bank of Russia moved the boundaries of the trading band of the currency basket to 35.80-42.80, but the amount of intervention required to displace the  of the boundaries of the band has not changed and now equals 1.5 billion dollars.

Aleksei Mikheev, an analyst with the investment department of VTB24 said that "the ruble continued to fall in February, although the rate was not the same as in January. The sharp decline of the ruble in the form of a gap occurred over the weekend from February to March because of the worsening geopolitical tensions related to Ukraine. On Monday, March 3, the Central Bank spent $11 billion on interventions to stop the panic. In response to the situation, financial and the monetary authorities sharply changed their tactics."