Ruble on wild rollercoaster ride

The Russian ruble suffered its biggest intraday fall of the year on Friday, having shed more than 2% to the lowest levels versus the US dollar and the euro since April 2022. However, the currency recovered all of its losses later in the day.

By 11:00 GMT, the ruble had tumbled to 83.50 against the dollar and 91.32 against the euro. By 15:00 GMT, however, the ruble had fully recovered and was actually gaining for the day at 81 to the dollar and 88 against the euro.

The drop came shortly after the country’s Ministry of Finance reported that Russia’s federal budget balance sank to a deficit of 2.4 trillion rubles ($29 billion) in the first quarter of the current year compared to a surplus of 1.13 trillion rubles ($14 billion) recorded for the same period a year ago.

Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov had previously said that the continued decline of the ruble against Western currencies stems from a simultaneous rise in imports and decline in export earnings.

The minister expects the recent recovery in oil prices from last month’s declines to support the ruble in coming weeks, as higher energy prices offer the prospect of increasing inflows of foreign currency to the world’s second-largest oil exporter.

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