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Central Bank raises US dollar rate, euro's official exchange rate against Russian ruble

The Russian ruble weakening against the U.S. dollar and the bi-currency basket occurs against the background of the decline in the ruble-denominated assets - traders

Russia's Central Bank ITAR-TASS/Sergei Bobylev

Russia's Central Bank

© ITAR-TASS/Sergei Bobylev

MOSCOW, January 20. /ITAR-TASS/. The Central Bank of the Russian Federation on Monday raised the euro's official exchange rate and the U.S. dollar's official exchange rate against the Russian ruble starting from Tuesday, January 21, 2014, the External and Public Relations Department of the Central Bank said in its regular report.

The official exchange rate of the euro against the Russian ruble increased by 2.49 kopecks to 45.5424 rubles per euro. The official exchange rate of the U.S. dollar against the Russian ruble went up by 20.86 kopecks to 33.6429 rubles per dollar.

Proceeding from the CBR report, the dollar-euro basket (0.55 of the U.S. dollars and 0.45 of the euro), calculated under the official currency exchange rates fixed by the bank for Tuesday, January 21, went up by 12.59 kopecks as compared to the indicator established by the Central Bank for Monday, January 20, 2014, and amounted to 38.9977 rubles as of 13.00 Moscow time.

The Russian ruble weakening against the U.S. dollar and the bi-currency basket occurs against the background of the decline in the ruble-denominated assets and the Central Bank’s steps aimed at the broadening of the currency trading band, traders say. The Russian ruble is also under the pressure of the global oil prices decrease. However, in the next few days the market players are hoping for the stabilization of the exchange rate owing to upcoming tax payments by corporations. Traditionally, in this period the pressure on the banking liquidity grows.

The Central Bank’s currency interventions in the support of the Russian ruble have remained at the level of 200 million U.S. dollars a day since the beginning of the year. Due to possible cut of the banking liquidity against background of the forthcoming tax payments, the Bank of Russia’s interventions most probably will go down, UralSib Capital analyst Irina Lebedeva said.

In addition, VTB Capital Analyst Maxim Korovin forecasts the Russian ruble strengthening in the medium term. In his view, the cost of the bi-currency basket at 39 rubles is too excessive. Besides, he believes that the U.S. dollar strengthening against the national currencies of countries with developing economies is slowly decreasing, as the recent macroeconomic statistics of the United States was not so strong to trigger money outflow into U.S. dollars.

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