Page 58 - bne IntelliNews Country Report: Russia Dec17

7.0 FX
RUSSIA -FX
1Q15
2Q15
3Q15
4Q15
1Q16
2Q16
3Q16
4Q16
1Q17
Currency (units per EUR) (eop)
63.37
61.52
74.58
79.70
76.54
71.21
70.88
63.81
60.60
Currency (units per USD) (eop)
58.46
55.52
66.24
72.88
67.61
64.26
63.16
60.66
56.38
Currency (units per EUR) (average)
83.00
85.90
69.92
72.18
82.32
74.38
72.15
68.13
62.63
Currency (units per USD) (average)
62.19
52.65
62.85
65.86
74.59
65.88
64.62
63.07
58.82
On November 7 the dollar rate for the first time in the last three months rose above 59.50 rubles / $, the euro broke the level of 69 rubles / €. The faster pace of ruble depreciation is primarily due to the high demand for foreign currency from domestic investors.
Russian banks have exhausted their supplies of dollars . they need to replenish their supplies to meet external debt obligations. Russian companies and banks have to pay $4.7bn in November and another $16.4bn in December. IN addition VTB has promised to lend CEFC another $5.5bn buy 14.16% of Rosneft shares.
Additional pressure on the rate of the Russian currency is the Ministry of Finance's plans to buy currency . In the period from November 8 to December 6, the ministry intends to allocate 122.8 billion rubles for these purposes. Thus, the daily purchases of currency will amount to 5.8 billion rubles., Which is 67% higher than the similar expenses in October. Analysts predicted that the agency will increase the volume of purchases, but only up to 4 billion rubles.
The increase in purchases by the Ministry of Finance is a factor in the outflow of currency liquidity from the local market (at a rate of $ 2-3 billion per month), in addition to payments on external debt and the planned issuance of VTB loan. "The situation in the market is aggravated by the relatively low current account balance, while banks have already exhausted their stock of liquid currency assets.
58 RUSSIA Country Report December 2017 www.intellinews.com