Expert: Belarusian ruble affected by Russian ruble decline
National Bank of Belarus sells US dollars for as much as 15,412 rubles. Economists are convinced there is room for more.
At the beginning of June, the Belarusian Currency and Stock Exchange switched to a new kind of trading - a permanent direct auction. Almost simultaneously, the national currency literally collapsed: dollar has been rising in price 100 and sometimes even 200 rubles a day. This has not happened since last winter.
"The Belarusian ruble is following the Russian rouble. We are bound by the competitive relations of our currency prices. The Russian ruble is being devalued. And it will be devalued by about 50 to 60 rubles per dollar. And we are simultaneously doing the same thing. Otherwise, there is a danger of falling exports to Russia. Our products there now cost sometimes more than their Russian counterparts," economist Leanid Zaika said about the reasons for the fall of the Belarusian ruble.
Senior Analyst of the company Alpari in Minsk, economist Vadzim Iosub, sees two reasons for the sharp fall of the ruble last week: "We cannot say that there is one reason for this phenomenon - there are two factors: the slow weakening of the Belarusian ruble by itself, as well as a Russian ruble falling against foreign currencies. In total, this results in a rather significant increase in the dollar and the euro rate in Belarus."
What happens next? Experts agree that much depends on the actions of the Russian authorities and the situation on the Moscow stock exchange. Our currency will react to the changes there almost instantaneously.
