The Russian ruble was at 103 per USD, loosely holding the sharp rebound from 115 per USD on January 1st, which was the lowest on record when excluding the selloff in the immediate aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The momentary rebound was due to the Finance Ministry deferring purchases of foreign exchange in its usual budget balance scheme, indicating that Moscow took action against the ruble’s weakness. Still, the currency remained much weaker than its post-war average. The ruble was halted from domestic trading against major pairs after Western nations sanctioned the Moscow Exchange, magnifying the difficulty for companies to secure hard currency and forcing the Bank of Russia to set forex prices since June. This added to previous sanctions that halted forex inflows due to sanctions on energy. The impact on government revenues from exports drove Moscow to relax the capital controls it had to prop up the ruble, letting it depreciate to support its budget deficit.
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