Russian ruble sets world record despite 4,000 sanctions

The ruble continues to appreciate

RT reports, the Russian ruble has proven resilient to external shocks, posting the second-largest gain among emerging market currencies against USD in this year.

In the first four months of 2022, the Russian currency gained 6.2% against the greenback, while the Brazilian real, which topped the charts, gained more than 14% against the dollar.

The Colombian peso gained 2.5%, while the South African rand and the Mexican peso gained 1.2% and 0.9% respectively against the dollar.

The Turkish lira fell 9.7% against the greenback, the Argentine peso fell 10.8% and the Egyptian pound fell as much as 14.9%. The Indian rupee and the Thai baht fell 2.3% and 2.7%, respectively.

According to Iskander Lutsko of broker ITI Capital in Moscow, the ruble has had a spectacular result thanks to export revenue in the first months of 2022. Over the past two months, Russia’s daily export turnover has fluctuated slightly. at least 1.7 billion USD.

“As a result, in April, the growth of the ruble accelerated, exceeding 18%. In addition, the Russian currency is the only currency in the world that has appreciated against the US dollar in a month,” said Lutsko, Ria Novosti.

Lutsko added that the dollar index rose more than 5% in April, hitting a 20-year high, as US Treasury yields rose ahead of a new Fed rate hike cycle. ) in early May.

How Russia recovered the ruble?

The ruble once fell to a historic low of about 150 rubles/USD in the Western context punish Russia in response to its military activity in Ukraine, but since then have almost doubled in value, the rate on May 2 was 71 rubles/USD.

According to The Week, at least 4,000 sanctions have been imposed on Russia by the West: International transactions of major banks have been blocked; 300 Russian companies along with 500 organizations and more than 3,000 individuals were blacklisted. Due to the refusal of the West and EU countries to buy fuel or gas from Russia (the EU imports 40% of fuel from Russia), the price of fuel worldwide has increased.

U.S. Treasury officials say Russia averted a default by using its dollar reserves abroad to make last-minute payments. The amount of the payment was not disclosed, but in early April, Russia’s Finance Ministry said it would attempt to make a payment of $649 million in two bonds due on April 6.

Since the US sanctioned the Central Bank of Russia at the beginning of the conflict UkraineRussia is only able to use new revenues from activities such as selling oil and gas or existing foreign currency reserves outside the country.

“We will wage an all-out economic and financial war against Russia. We will cause the collapse of the Russian economy,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire announced on March 2.

Meanwhile, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that the country has secured 565 million euros due this year, as well as 84 million euros due in 2024. Both payments All payments are made in USD. The obligation to pay the bond in euros is being fulfilled in accordance with the conditions specified in the bond issuance process. Russia’s payments on the dollar-denominated bonds are seen as a last-ditch effort to avoid default.

President Vladimir Putin has taken steps to help the ruble rise again. Russia considers restoring the value of its currency a key goal. “Unfriendly countries” imposing sanctions on Russia have been asked to pay for gas purchases in rubles. While most EU countries and the US refused to comply with the request, 10 European countries are said to have paid buy gas in rubles, which contributed to the revival of the Russian currency. Russia supplies gas via pipelines to 23 European countries.

The Central Bank of Russia on March 25 announced to continue buy gold at a fixed price of 5,000 rubles/gram. The bank also banned foreigners from selling securities and required exporters to earn foreign currency to convert it into rubles. On February 28, the Central Bank of Russia doubled the benchmark interest rate to 20% and on April 8, lowered the benchmark interest rate from 20% to 17%.

All of the above measures have helped the ruble rebound spectacularly.