Central Bank buys $40m to prevent dollar rate from dropping

At the end of today's dollar trade session the weighted average dollar exchange rate dropped by RUR0.01. Commercial bank specialists believe that the strengthening of the ruble at the unified dollar trade session could have been more broad-based but for the Russian Central Bank's dollar purchasing. According to experts, the Central Bank implemented a rather considerable ruble intervention at the special dollar trade session and thus prevented the dollar rate from dropping to lower than RUR31.79. According to dealers, the Central Bank purchased around $40m at the special session, i.e. around a third of the total trade volume. The Central Bank was first buying dollars at RUR31.78 and then at a rate RUR0.01 higher. As a result, the weighted average dollar exchange rate was posted at the final price paid by the Central Bank for dollars.

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