MOSCOW, June 16 (RIA Novosti) — The head of the Russian Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, hopes that Russia and Ukraine find a solution to the gas row promptly and the Russian national currency rate won’t be affected by the dispute.
“I hope that the gas conflict will be settled. We hope that there will be no direct consequences for the ruble rate, but certain influences may take place if combined with other factors. Unfortunately, all these unpredictable factors, fluctuations in investors’ moods have active influence on the ruble exchange rate at the moment,” she said.
The ruble weakened 11 percent in the first two and a half months of this year at the peak of violence outbreak in Ukraine. By mid-June, the currency recovered 7.5 percent. Nabiullina said she expected the ruble to stabilize from now on.
On Monday, in light of Russia’s cut in gas supply for Ukraine due to outstanding debt, the Russian currency weakened by 16 kopecks to 34.61 against the dollar and 26 kopecks against the euro to 46.85.