strongThe Ruble Devaluation Continues/strongbr /br /The ruble fell the most in nine years against the euro this week after the central bank widened its trading band twice and allowed the currency to fall by a further 3.8 percent, following last week's 1 percent devaluation. The currency retreated to a maximum of 5.8 percent over the week, although it recovered somewhat and was up 0.1 percent again today (Friday) over yesterday, trading at 39.1772 per euro at midday in Moscow. The currency has now fallen 16 percent against the dollar since the start of August, and added another 1.3 percent to its losses today, hitting 27.8412 per dollar and falling 1.1 percent (to 33.1020) against the currency basket which is targeted. The ruble thus lost 3.9 percent to the basket this week, in the process experiencing its sixth weekly drop.br /br /br /strongForeign Exchange Reserves Continue To Decline/strongbr /br /br /Russia’s ...

The ruble fell the most against the euro in nine years this week after the central bank widened its trading band twice to allow the ruble to fall by a further 3.8 percent, after a allowing 1 percent devaluation last week. The currency retreated a total of 5.8 percent over the week, although it was up 0.1 percent today (Friday) over yesterday at 39.1772 per euro at midday in Moscow. The currencyt has also now fallen 16 percent against the dollar since the start of August, adding a further 1.3 percent to hit 27.8412 per dollar today and falling 1.1 percent to 33.1020 against the currency basket. The ruble thus lost 3.9 percent to the basket this week, making for its sixth weekly drop.br /br /br /strongForeign Exchange Reserves Continue To Decline/strongbr /br /br /Russia’s currency reserves fell $1.6 billion to $435.4 billion during the week to 12 December. When ...

By Edward Hugh: Barcelonabr /br /Russia's foreign-exchange reserves have been now been declining very rapidly since mid August, and as the money goes so does the faith that the large stock of reserves the country built up during the boom times would be sufficient to see them through any downturn in energy prices. As the money leaves, so it seems does the decade of economic growth and stability which they symbolised. Indeed so rapid has been the decline that Russia's international reserves, which are the third-biggest after those of China and Japan, have now fallen $161 billion, or 27% percent, since 8 August last, and decreased by $17.9 billion to $437 billion in the week to 5 December. Investors have now pulled $211 billion out of the country since August, according to estimates by BNP Paribas.br /br /br /pa href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ngczZkrw340/SUbQptNe4tI/AAAAAAAALyE/K0xlBOy3AlA/s1600-h/russia+GDP.png"img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5280137028067844818" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: ...

strongFinancial News /strongbr /br /By Jason Corcoranbr /br /24 November 2008 br /br /emLetter from Moscow/embr /Gambling in casinos has been a popular pastime in Moscow since the fall of communism but a more recent fad is desperate speculation on the currency markets. A slide in the value of the rouble and a deposit run at banks that is gathering momentum has loaded the dice in favour of a punt on the dollar.br /br /The on-off love affair with the greenback dates back to 1998 when a rouble devaluation wiped out people’s savings. Those lucky enough to have withdrawn their money in time transferred funds into dollars. br /br /Popular as Russia’s leaders are, its citizens have learnt not to take any chances by keeping faith with the rouble. Russians are rushing to protect their wealth in global currencies, having seen the stock market plunge by 70%, inflation hovering at ...

by Edward Hugh: Barcelonabr /br /blockquote“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”br /Tolstoy/blockquotebr /Well this strongis/strong an interesting little fable of modern family life, even if all the families involved may not be ones which many of my readers would normally wish to belong to.br /br /As is now reasonably well know Russian private oil company Lukoil is currently making a bid for the shares in Spanish energy company Repsol which are owned by the deeply indebted Spanish property company Sacyr Vallhermosa.br /br /Shares in what is Spain's fifth biggest builder, and which currently occupies the somewhat ignominious position of being Spain's worst-performing stock this year, jumped the most in two years last Thursday (20 November) on reports they were about to sell their 20 percent stake in Repsol YPF to the Russian oil company OAO Lukoil. Sacyr, which said last week it ...

strongThe Guardian - Comment is Free /strongbr /br /emA slide in the value of Russian currency has led many to cash out their modest savings and punt for either dollar or eurobr / /embr /br /strongBy Jason Corcoran/strongbr /br /guardian.co.uk, Wednesday November 19 2008 20.00br /br /The financial crisis is quickly transforming Russia into a nation of desperate currency speculators due to a slide in the rouble's value and a deposit run gathering pace at the banks. br /br /For many ordinary Russians, it's a game of roulette as they cash out their modest savings and punt for either dollar or euro.br /br /The cards are stacked in favour of a dollar bet as Russians have a love affair with the greenback dating back to last financial crisis in 1998, when a rouble devaluation wiped out their savings. br /br /Pensioners tuning into national TV last week may well ...

Russia's foreign-exchange reserves have been declining rapidly since mid August, and with the money which is flowing out may go almost a decade of economic stability which they brought. Russia's international reserves, which are the third-biggest after China's and Japan's, have now fallen $161 billion, or 27% percent, since 8 August, and decreased by $17.9 billion to $437 billion in the week to 5 December. Investors have pulled $211 billion out of the country since August, according to BNP Paribas.br /br /br /But just how difficult this is proving to be was illustrated only this morning as Russia’s central bank devalued the ruble for the second time in a only a week, and the ruble fell as much as 1.3 percent (to a four-year low of 37.5015 per euro) following the decision by Bank Rossii to widen the trading band against the basket of dollars and euros used by the ...

Financial News Jason Corcoran in Moscow10 November 2008 A merger of Micex and RTS is more likely following the exodus of €108bn in foreign capital since AugustRybnikov: suspensions must stop Moves to merge Moscow’s two stock exchanges, modernise market architecture and improve long-term liquidity have been given impetus following Russia’s worst trading collapse since the sovereign default in 1998. The frequent closures of Moscow’s two main trading platforms have led many investors to switch to trading Russian Global Depositary Receipts and Russian American Depositary Receipts in London and New York.Some 23 suspensions of trading on the rouble-denominated Micex since early September have contributed to a two-thirds slide in the volume of trading and an exodus of investors.Micex chief executive Alexei Rybnikov hopes the suspensions will become a ...

Russia's currency reserves, the third-biggest in the world, are falling steadily as tumbling oil prices and an exodus of capital are piling the pressure on the central bank and government policymakers to accept a devaluation in the ruble. Oil prices which are now down 60% from their july peak, slowing economic growth and increasing investor concern are steadily draining Russia's foreign exchange reserves, which fell 19 percent (to $484.6 billion) in the 12 weeks through Oct. 31. This is down from $598.1 billion in the week before the invasion of Southern Ossetia.Russia had been using the reserves to try and contain the upward movement in the ruble was thought to present a threat to the competitiveness of exports. But resistance is now becoming increasingly difficult in the fact of a 13 percent drop against the dollar since August 1.Bank Rossii began managing the ruble's exchange rate ...

It was one of those rare moments that one of Vladimir Putin's people humiliated him in public. It was on May 23, 2007, when Putin "suggested studying the possibility of investing funds received from sales of Russian energy in Russian blue chip stocks, in light of the stock market's stagnation during the first quarter of 2007." At the time, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin could barely hide his shock, and immediately expressed his strong disagreement with Putin's suggestion, arguing that such investments would hike inflation and trigger stock market speculation. Kudrin has come under fire several times now over the management of the stabilization fund, and it is interesting to see the following announcement in light of the recent release of his #2 man Sergei Storchak. And low and behold, today Forbes reports... Russia's National Wealth Fund will invest $6.9 billion, or nearly a seventh of its ...