The Russian ruble rose in today's trade after yesterday's decline of about 7 percent against the dollar thanks to the intervention of the central bank, which announced that it is stopping buying foreign currency to stabilize financial markets, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
Yesterday, the Russian Central Bank announced that from today until the end of the year it stops buying foreign currency on the domestic market and postpones the planned purchases until next year.
As a result, the ruble rose 2.60 percent against the dollar to 110.20 rubles in pre-morning trade, but remains below its lowest level since March 2022, the first month of the war in Ukraine , OTC bank data indicate.
The ruble also rose against the yuan to 14.60 rubles, according to data from the Moscow Stock Exchange. Trading in dollars and euros in Russia has been over-the-counter since June after the West imposed sanctions on the Moscow Stock Exchange.
The official exchange rate announced by the Central Bank based on data from commercial banks is 108.1 rubles per dollar today. One-day ruble-dollar futures on the Moscow Exchange, the only official trading data on the dollar, rose 1 percent to 108.32 rubles.
Until recently, Western currency trading in Russia was dominated by a few still unsanctioned Russian banks, including Gazprombank, as well as the few Western banks still operating in Russia. The new financial sanctions imposed last week, incl. and against "Gazprombank", caused panic in the currency markets and led to the collapse of the ruble, experts point out.
In order to get dollars and euros, the sanctioned banks buy currency abroad and transport it in cash on planes to Russia from countries that have not imposed sanctions on trade with the country, according to Reuters.