Ruble Weakens Third Day Versus Basket as Debt Payments Loom - Bloomberg

Ruble Weakens Third Day Versus Basket as Debt Payments Loom - Bloomberg:

"The ruble weakened for a third day on speculation the central bank may pare its defense of the Russian currency and as companies bought dollars and euros before foreign debt payments next month.
The ruble declined 0.2 percent to 37.2683 against the central bank’s target dollar-euro basket by 6 p.m. in Moscow, when the central bank stops its market operations. The currency weakened 0.2 percent against the euro to 43.4695 and slid 0.3 percent to 32.1925 against the dollar.
Russian companies must repay about $5.5 billion of bonds and syndicated loans in October, creating additional demand for foreign currency, according to Anton Zakharov, a money manager at OAO Promsvyazbank. A move now by the central bank to widen the ruble band within which it intervenes to smooth volatility would accelerate the currency’s drop, VTB Capital analysts Maxim Korovin and Anton Nikitin said in an e-mailed note."

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