MOSCOW: The Russian rouble weakened further against the US dollar and was flat against China’s yuan on Tuesday as markets expected the Russian Finance Ministry to announce new parameters for its forex operations this week.
By 0803 GMT the rouble was down 0.4% at 93.35 against the dollar, according to indicative LSEG data.
The Russian currency has lost over 6% against the dollar since last month’s high on Sept. 3. The rouble was flat at 13.14 against China’s yuan, according to LSEG, while on the Moscow Stock Exchange it strengthened by 0.4% to 13.16.
Russian rouble flat against dollar
The rouble has lost over 9% against the yuan since Sept. 4 and remains near its lowest level for a year against the Chinese currency.
One of the factors behind the rouble’s weakness were the historic low daily sales of the Chinese currency by the state in September, which contributed to a yuan liquidity crunch.
The finance ministry is due to announce new parameters on Oct. 3.
A licence from the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control allowing banks to deal with the Moscow Stock Exchange expires on Oct. 12 and is also likely to dent yuan liquidity - another factor pushing the rouble down.
The Russian currency did not react to the draft budget submitted to parliament for review on Monday.
Trading in major currencies in Russia has shifted to the over-the-counter (OTC) market, obscuring price data, since Western sanctions on the Moscow Exchange and its clearing agent, the National Clearing Centre, were introduced on June 12.
One-day rouble-dollar futures, which trade on the Moscow Exchange and are a guide for OTC market rates, were flat at 93.17.
The central bank’s official exchange rate, which it calculates using OTC data, was set at 92.22 to the dollar.
The rouble was down 0.16% at 103.72 against the euro , LSEG data showed.
Brent crude oil, a global benchmark for Russia’s main export, was down 1.51% at $72.70.
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