Rise in balances at correspondent accounts causes no increase in dollar rate

The weighted-average dollar rate for 'tomorrow' deals reached RUR31.64 perdollar on the interbank market on Tuesday afternoon. Therefore, it exceededthe official exchange rate for Wednesday, September 18 by just RUR0.02. Thetrade volume on the interbank market is still rather low and is far lowerthan that at the Unified Trading Session. At the same time an increase in the balances at commercial banks'correspondent accounts, especially in the Moscow region, where therespective amount has risen by almost RUR4bn ($126.46m), allowed forpredicting an increase in the dollar rate in the afternoon. Banking expertsvoiced this opinion in an interview with RBC. They did not rule out thepossibility that despite a substantial decrease in dollar sales at theinterbank market, the Central Bank was still continuing its efforts tocontain growth in the dollar rate on the interbank market. Experts thinkthat the Central Bank could be carrying out a currency intervention duringthe afternoon trading session at the level of RUR31.65 per dollar. .