{"id":26279,"date":"2023-04-27T13:46:48","date_gmt":"2023-04-27T13:46:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/russian-rouble-steadies-on\/"},"modified":"2023-04-27T13:47:43","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T13:47:43","slug":"russian-rouble-steadies-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/russian-rouble-steadies-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian rouble steadies on eve of central bank rate decision"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Alexander Marrow<\/p>\n<p>(Reuters) &#8211;     The rouble steadied on Thursday, with the market looking ahead to Friday&#8217;s interest rate decision, as favourable month-end tax payments propped the Russian currency up amid a significant drop in oil prices.<\/p>\n<p>By 1322 GMT, the rouble was 0.2% stronger against the dollar at 81.44 and had gained 0.6% to trade at 89.76 versus the euro. It had firmed 0.3% against the yuan to 11.72.<\/p>\n<p>The rouble has been under pressure from cheapening oil, a major source of income for Russia, but the tax period has so far allowed it to withstand external pressure, said Otkritie Research analyst Andrei Kochetkov in a note. <\/p>\n<p>Month-end tax payments that usually lead exporters to convert foreign currency revenue to meet local liabilities are putting a floor under the rouble. Those taxes are due on April 28.<\/p>\n<p>Brent crude oil, a global benchmark for Russia&#8217;s main export, was up 0.1% at $77.75 a barrel, just off a one-month low hit in the previous session.<\/p>\n<p>Oil prices dropped almost 4% on Wednesday, extending sharp losses from the previous session, driven by fears of a U.S. recession and an increase in Russian oil exports which dulled the impact of OPEC production cuts.<\/p>\n<p>The market is also looking ahead to Friday&#8217;s interest rate decision.<\/p>\n<p>Weekly consumer prices rose marginally last week, data showed on Wednesday, cementing expectations for the central bank to hold rates at 7.5%, with the risk of inflationary pressure limiting room for manoeuvre on any monetary easing.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We still see no reason for the central bank to change the rate and its rhetoric, but inflation risks will continue to concern the central bank more than economic growth,&#8221; said Dmitry Polevoy, head of investment at Locko-Invest.    <\/p>\n<p>Russian stock indexes were higher.<\/p>\n<p>The dollar-denominated RTS index was up 0.6% to 1,017.5 points. The rouble-based MOEX Russian index was 0.4% higher at 2,630.2 points.<\/p>\n<p>Shares in lender VTB gained about 5% on the day after the bank posted high first quarter net profit as the wider banking sector recovers and the cost of risk normalises. <\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p> (Reporting by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Mark Potter)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/russian-rouble-steadies-on\/illustration-shows-russian-rouble-coins-are-seen-in-this-illustration\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportBusinessNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3Q0MU-VIEWIMAGE.jpg\" alt=\"tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3Q0MU-VIEWIMAGE\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Alexander Marrow (Reuters) &#8211; The rouble steadied on Thursday, with the market looking ahead to Friday&#8217;s interest rate decision, as favourable month-end tax payments propped the Russian currency up amid a significant drop in oil prices. By 1322 GMT, the rouble was 0.2% stronger against the dollar at 81.44 and had gained 0.6% to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":26280,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1213],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-business"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportBusinessNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3Q0MU-VIEWIMAGE.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26279"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26281,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26279\/revisions\/26281"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}