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Ruble Played Euro With Dollar
The CBR’s assets narrowed by no more than $3.6 billion November 14 through 21 thanks to the lower pressure on Russia’s ruble, revaluation of currencies and higher ruble demand on the eve of big tax payments. The CBR that shifted to policy of ruble’s soft depreciation had to spend the stockpile to oppose Russia’s ruble appreciation to the U.S. dollar, which in its turn, depreciated vs. euro.
The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) announced yesterday that the foreign exchange assets narrowed by $3.6 billion to $449.9 billion November 14 through 21. The amount doesn’t appear impressive if compared with the past week’s loss of over $21.9 billion. At the same time, the market players estimate the CBR’s interventions on the open market at $4.5 billion to $8 billion.
The pressure on ruble has lowered, the economic analysts speculate, shedding light on the strange difference between the loss of the foreign exchange assets and the intervention amount. One of the reasons was revaluation of British pound and Japanese yen in the CBR’s currency basket. The appreciation of those two currencies widened the assets by roughly $300 million during a week. Besides, the companies were getting ready for the current tax week, while the banks were to prepare for payments under the Finance Ministry’s deposits and the security-free auctions of the CBR.
Of interest is that the CBR, which informally declared November 24 the policy of controlled soft depreciation of Russia’s ruble, had to spend currency to prevent the ruble from appreciating to the U.S. dollar. Driven down by the disappointing statistics of the United States, the dollar has lost 3.3 percent to euro since November 22. But the ruble rate is tied to bi-currency basket of euro and dollar, so the stronger euro appreciates Russia's ruble to the U.S. currency.
www.kommersnat.com
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 28, 2008
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