Dollar's steep rise against euro causes ruble decline

The weighted-average exchange rate for tomorrow deals reached RUR28.51 per dollar at today's special trading session for US currency. This figure is RUR0.01 higher than the official exchange rate set by the Central Bank of Russia for February 26. Therefore, a new insignificant rise in the dollar rate against the ruble has been reported at the UTS. As reported earlier, yesterday the ruble also fell by RUR0.01 against the dollar.

At the same time the reasons for these small increases in the dollar rate on the Russian market yesterday and today seem to be different. While on February 25 the ruble weakened mainly because of the dismissal of the government and the uncertainty about the candidacy for new Prime Minister and the future composition of the Cabinet, this factor has lost its importance now, and a sheer rise in the US dollar rate against the euro on international exchanges has become the prime reason for the dollar's strengthening against the ruble. The euro has lost over 1.5 percent of its value against the dollar over the past 24 hours, which has boosted the interest of the participants of the special trading session in buying dollars.

Commercial bank dealers believe that the ruble could have weakened further on the UTS today, but the Central Bank has stopped it. Probably, the Central Bank has decided to prevent any increase in the dollar rate by more than RUR0.01 a day in the near future, and it has decisively foiled all attempts to speculate for the ruble's fall.