Central Bank analysts evaluate currency market in February

The main factor that influenced the dynamics of the ruble rate against the dollar in February 2004 was activities of the Russian Central Bank aimed at smoothing fluctuations of the ruble rate amid the high volatility of world currency markets, analysts of the Russian Central Bank said in their survey.

In the period when the euro was growing against the dollar the Russian Central Bank made interventions to prevent the ruble's sharp strengthening. On the whole, the dollar rate against the ruble was pretty stable in February.

The majority of operations with the instrument "ruble/dollar" were made at the UTS with tomorrow settlements last month. The volume of dollar/ruble deals amounted to $24.996bn, dollar/euro deals $6.031bn and the volume of euro/ruble deals was $147m in February 2004.

Russia's gold and currency reserves advanced by $2.3bn last month, despite large payments on foreign debts. The key factor that promoted this increase was the Central Bank's operations on the domestic currency market.

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