Dollar suddenly drops

This morning the weighted average dollar exchange rate with tomorrow settlements totaled RUR30.64, down RUR0.06 against the official dollar rate for today. That has been the first time the ruble strengthened against the dollar over the past two weeks. As reported earlier, on August 26 to September 8 the dollar stepped up RUR0.4. Analysts say that the strong pace of the dollar on the Russian market has possibly forced the Central Bank to take active measures to bolster the ruble. Yesterday, the bank prevented the dollar from strengthening more than RUR0.02.

According to commercial bank dealers, the Central Bank has continued to slacken the rise in the dollar today. Experts believe that under these conditions commercial banks hesitate to make speculative deals and go bull. A strain on ruble liquidity is another reason for the sag in the dollar rate. This morning overnight ruble credit rates were ranging between 12 and 14 percent, up from 10 percent as of yesterday.