Dollar continues strengthening

The weighted average dollar exchange rate on tomorrow deals amounted to 29.05 RUR/USD at the opening of today's special session. This figure was 0.06 rubles higher than the official dollar exchange rate set by the Central Bank for May 12. At the same time, the high on the deals at the UTS was 29.08 RUR/USD. As such, the ruble weakened against the dollar again.

According to commercial bank dealers, the main reason for the dollar's strengthening against the ruble was the absence of support to the Russian currency by the Central Bank. As reported earlier, yesterday, the Central Bank prevented the dollar from exceeding the level of 29.02 RUR/USD at the UTS. At present, the Central Bank is not preventing the dollar from strengthening.

The American currency will continue strengthening against the ruble and the situation is unlikely to change since most monetary resources in Russia are being transferred into foreign currencies, an analyst told RBC. According to him, the level of 29.02 RUR/USD is currently a stabilization level, which is supposed not to let speculators increase the exchange rate considerably. There has been a correlation between the ruble and the euro, which is now weakening against the dollar, and this movement will affect the Russian market, the analyst stressed.