The strengthening of national currencies in individual East European and CIS countries against the ruble has lately been exercising a substantial influence on the real effective rate of the ruble. A result of this process has been that the ruble's real effective rate has moved outside the band as set by the real rate of the ruble against the US dollar and euro, says the survey.
The Russian national currency strengthened in real terms against the dollar by 5.5 per cent in January-August, against the euro by 7.6 per cent, the pound sterling by 2.8 per cent, and the Swiss franc 7.6 per cent.
In September, the real ruble against the dollar will strengthen by 0.2 per cent, and against the euro by 0.1 per cent, according to Ministry estimates. On the whole, in January-September, the ruble will firm against the dollar in real terms by 5.7 per cent, and the unified European currency by 7.8 per cent.
In August, the main factors affecting the ruble against the dollar were the policy of the Central Bank to hold back the real strengthening of the national currency, and variations in the liquidity of the banking sector. During the month the official rate of the ruble slipped by 0.54 per cent down to 29.26 rubles per dollar, with market players being more active than in July, due primarily to a growing speculative interest in foreign currency transactions. Overall supply of foreign currency in August was at a sufficiently high level.
