Central Bank restrains rise in dollar rate - 6 March, 2003

The weighted average dollar rate for deals with tomorrow settlements reached RUR 31.59 on the Russian internabank market in the afternoon today. This exchange rate corresponded to the weighted average exchange rate reported on the interbank market yesterday as well as to the official dollar exchange rate. Experts from commercial banks linked this stability on the currency market to actions of the Central Bank that continued ruble interventions purchasing dollars for RUR 31.585, which was actually the same as RUR 31.59. Experts estimated the volume of tomorrow deals on dollars acquired by the Central Bank at $20m to $25m as of 1:30 p.m. today. They specified it accounted for about a half of all deals, as the trade volume reached about $50m by that time.