- Russia’s ruble is the world’s top-performing currency against the dollar in recent weeks.
- The ruble has jumped more than 10% since hitting a trough of around 100 against the greenback early last month.
- Still, the ruble is down 17% against the dollar year to date as Russia’s economy battles a host of problems.
Russia’s ruble is in the midst of a recovery that’s taken the currency to the highest levels seen in five months, undoing some of the plunge it saw over the past year.
The ruble has jumped more than 10% since hitting a trough of around 100 against the greenback last month, making it the world’s best-performing currency versus the dollar in that span.
That’s partly due to capital controls Russia has implemented to stanch an outflow of cash leaving the country as well as aggressive rate hikes from Russia’s central bank to tame inflation.
Rising crude prices have also played a role: Oil is one of Russia’s main revenue sources, and the nation has pushed for energy exporters to sell their foreign-exchange earnings for rubles on the currency market.
Russian central bankers have also moved to dump foreign currencies. In September, the Bank of Russia said it would sell 21.4 billion rubles worth of foreign currency on the domestic market, up 830% from the amount it had originally planned.
Still, Russia’s currency has fallen 17% against the dollar so far this year, attesting to the host of problems facing the nation’s economy.
Russia could soon face a grim and de-industrialized future, some economists say, as it continues to be slammed by high inflation and the rising costs of its war in Ukraine. Meanwhile, inflation remains elevated as the war has kept the labor market tight.
