Ruble continues to strengthen against dollar, euro

The speed of the ruble's strengthening against the dollar on the Russian currency market has seriously increased in January 2004, compared to that in December 2003. The nominal ruble rate against the dollar grew by 3.4 percent in January 2004. Taking into account the consumer price indices in Russia and the USA, the rate of the ruble's strengthening against the dollar reached 4.7 percent. This data was published by the Center for Macroeconomic Research of the Yunikon BDO company.

The dynamics of the ruble's rate against foreign currencies was determined by the steady high prices of Russia's main exports and a high supply of foreign currency on the domestic market. The amount of gold and foreign currency reserves grew by 9.1 percent in January 2004, reaching $84bn as of February 1.

At the same time the real ruble rate as of the end of January 2004 was 13.9 percent lower than that in December 1997, which was before the 1998 financial crisis.

The ruble's nominal rate against the euro was up 4.1 percent in January, which was mainly due to the ruble's rise against the dollar. At the same time despite that fact that the euro's rate against the dollar was subject to fluctuations in January, it had not changed seriously during that month. As for the real rate of the ruble against the euro, taking into account the consumer price indices in Russia and the Euro Zone, it grew by 6.2 percent in January.