Rise in balances at correspondent accounts facilitates dollar rate increase

The amount of rubles at banks' correspondent accounts increased as of thebeginning of operations today. The volume of growth reached RUR1.3bn($41.13m) in Russia in general, and the corresponding figure for the Moscowregion exceeded RUR2bn ($63.27m). A rise in balances at banks'correspondent accounts has taken place for the first time in almost a weeksince September 3.The increase of the amount of rubles at banks' correspondent accounts hasfacilitated a weakening of the national currency against the dollar. Thus,the weighted-average dollar rate has increased for the first time duringthe past three Unified Trading Sessions since September 3 as of the end ofthe morning trading session. The trade volume exceeded $80m at the specialtrading session on September 9, which is above the average level. Theexchange rate on the interbank currency market has not been lower thanRUR31.65 per dollar in the afternoon, exceeding the official exchange rateset for September 10 by RUR0.02. .