The euro rate on the Moscow Stock Exchange exceeded 90 rubles

The ruble rate continues to fall. Yesterday, the dollar and the euro rose by more than one and a half rubles. For the first time since April 14 last year, the euro rose to 90 rubles, and the dollar exceeded the mark of 82 rubles, according to data from the Moscow Stock Exchange.

Since the beginning of the week, the dollar has grown by more than 5%, the euro has risen by 10 rubles, or almost 13%.

In the spring of last year, after the Russian military invasion of Ukraine and the introduction of international sanctions against Russia, the exchange rate of the ruble collapsed. However, the actions of the Bank of Russia, a sharp drop in imports and the preservation of income from the export of energy carriers (prices were high, and sanctions on oil exports were introduced only at the end of the year) led to a strengthening of the ruble.

Analysts associate the current drop in the ruble exchange rate with end of the tax period. Large exporters exchanged currency for rubles in order to make payments to the budget. Among the other reasons for the weakening of the ruble are the growth of imports with a decrease in the volume of exports, a decrease in the sale of currency by the Ministry of Finance against the background of rising oil prices, and speculative demand for the currency in connection with the outflow of capital from Russia. The fall of the ruble is also influenced by the increase in the number of sales transactions of foreign companies in Russia, as buyers need currency to close them.

Thus, the Bloomberg agency linked the fall of the ruble with the withdrawal of the British company Shell from the Sakhalin-2 project. This week it became known that Vladimir Putin gave personal permission to the NOVATEK company to buy Shell’s stake in the Sakhalin-2 project for almost 95 billion rubles. At the same time, the funds will be sent to the overseas account of the British company. Thus, Shell will be able to withdraw this money from Russia.

Apparently, this was the very “small flow” that affected the ruble, according to financial analysts polled by the Russian service of the BBC.

At the same time, in their opinion, there is no fundamental reason to expect the ruble exchange rate to remain at the current level. One of the reasons is higher oil prices after the decision of a number of OPEC countries to cut oil production by more than one million barrels per day.