- Russian Rouble (RUB) extends last week’s declines
- More foreign companies exit Russia
- US Dollar (USD) rises across the board on safe-haven flows & strong jobs data
- Fed expected to raise interest rates next week
The US Dollar Russian Rouble (USD/RUB) exchange rate is soaring at the start of the week. Adding to 20% gains across the previous week. At 10:00 UTC, USD/RUB trades +12.5% at 138.37 after rising as much as 140 earlier in the session a record high.
The Russian Rouble has continued to freefall as the central bank failed to stop the Russian currency from tumbling to a record low. Last week international rating agencies cut Russian sovereign debt to junk status.
In the latest Rouble news, President Putin has issued a decree that holders of Russian debt are to receive interest payments in Roubles, a move which is likely to accelerate the rate at which Western companies are leaving Russia.
Given the Rouble dropped 30% against the USD since the start of the year, the announcement will be unattractive for foreign creditors.
The US Dollar is rising across the board. The US Dollar Index, which measures the greenback versus a basket of major currencies, trades +0.3% at the time of writing at 99.00, adding to last week’s gains of 2.1%
The US dollar rallied on Friday, boosted by safe-haven flows and solid non-farm payroll data. The labour market report showed that 678,000 jobs were created in February. This was significantly more than the 400,000 that analysts had penciled in. The unemployment rate also fell by more than expected to 3.8%, down from 4%, indicating that the labor market recovery, in the US, is going well.
The data comes ahead of next week’s FOMC meeting where the Fed is expected to hike interest rates for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
Today there is no high impacting US data. Risk sentiment is expected to continue driving global forex markets with investors watching developments closely.
