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Central bank reports ruble weakening in March

The ruble dropped by nearly 1.5% in March

MOSCOW, April 13. /TASS/. One-time and poorly predictable factors made a major input into ruble weakening against the background of growing geopolitical tension, the Central Bank said on Friday.

"The ruble dropped by nearly 1.5% in March. According to a model estimate, one-off and poorly predictable factors made a major contribution to that. The ruble could have been 2-3% stronger in absence of them. This is probably linked to growth of geopolitical tension," the Bank of Russia says.

At the same time, "recovering global oil prices and slightly increased attractiveness of carry trade transactions, which could lead to ruble growth by 1-1.5% in absence of other factors," supported the ruble in March, the regulator reports.

The situation on global financial markets in March was not in favor of emerging economies, including Russia, the Central Bank said.

"Toughened monetary policy in the US, growing probability of trade wars aggravation and continuing volatility on global stock markets significantly reduced the appetite of investors for risky assets, including Russian ones," the regulator said.

Growing CDS [credit default swap] spread for the majority of emerging economies evidences declining appetite for risky assets, the Bank of Russia reports.

"The Russian CDS spread rose by 17 basis points during the month and further to indicated factors, growing geopolitical strain could also make a certain contribution to that. The comparable spread extension was observed last time in June 2017," the regulator noted.