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Dollar Posts New Healthy Gains
The U.S. dollar has posted new healthy gains vs. the European currency and Russia’s ruble today, November 20, 2008. As a result, the CBR’s rate of exchange equals 27.5715 ruble/dollar, which is 0.13 ruble above the previous indicator. Euro lost 0.17 ruble, and the official rate of exchange stands at 34.49 ruble/euro.
According to Quote.ru, each euro cost $1.2505 when the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) was fixing its exchange rate. The amount was roughly $1.2625 a day ago. So, the U.S. dollar appreciated 1 percent over a day.
The authorities spent $58 billion during two months to sustain the ruble, UniCredit Aton analysts said referring to the statement of Russia’s Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin. Kudrin also reminded about the CBR’s policy aimed at gradual devaluation of Russia’s ruble.
“We think that the decline in oil prices coupled with continuous capital outflow will strengthen the pressure on the CBR reserves, which will eventually force the Central Bank to shift to completely flexible rate of foreign exchange. The result could be the ruble devaluation of 15 percent in 2009,” specified analysts of UniCredit Aton.
According to UniCredit Aton experts, the CBR spent up to $90 billion during two months to protect ruble’s worth vs the bi-currency basket, which is above the estimate given by finance minister. It may inject another $90 billion to $100 billion from Russia’s foreign exchange assets of $475 billion to rescue the ruble, the analysts concluded.
www.kommersant.com
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