Exchange rate remains stable despite improvement of situation with ruble liquidity

The weighted-average exchange rate reached RUR31.63 per dollar during thefirst half of the morning trading session for the US dollar on Tuesday,September 17. Therefore, it had not changed compared to the previous level.At the same time the situation with ruble liquidity at commercial banks hasbeen facilitating a rise in the dollar rate. Banking experts told RBC that the interest rates for overnight credits inrubles had been at 6-7% this morning compared to yesterday afternoon'slevel of 9-10%. The problem of a deficit of rubles on the market wasresolved on Monday afternoon, when the interest rates for overnight creditsin rubles decreased to 5%. However, the dollar rate has remained at theprevious level during today Unified Trading Session. A rather low exchangerate has also been reported on the interbank market, where the rate for'tomorrow' deals has not surpassed the level of RUR31.65 per dollar. Thisrate is just RUR0.02 higher than the current official exchange rate. .