MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Russian rouble fell a little bit against the dollar on Tuesday, as the end of a good time to pay taxes at the end of the month drew near and investors waited for a rate decision from the central bank later this week.
At 7:32 GMT, the rouble was worth 61.33 against the dollar, which was 0.3% less than before. It was worth 60.34 against the euro, which was 0.4% more than before. It was worth 8.32 yuan, which was 0.1% more than before.
The rouble has been helped by the fact that at the end of each month, companies that focus on exports usually turn their foreign exchange earnings into roubles to pay their domestic taxes. Some of this help will stop on Tuesday.
Analysts at Promsvyazbank said in a note that support for rouble positions is slowly going down because the end of tax payments is getting closer.
The market is paying attention to the central bank’s interest rate decision on Friday. Most analysts polled by Reuters think the rate will stay at 7.5%.
Evgeny Zhornist, a portfolio manager at Alfa Capital, said, “The Bank of Russia is likely to be careful so that it can gather all the information and weigh its options.”
He also said that a strong rouble, a drop in Russia’s GDP, and a drop in business activity and confidence are all things that favor a soft monetary policy.
Later on Tuesday, the central bank will release information about what households think will happen to inflation. This is an important sign that the bank looks at closely before setting interest rates.
At $92.7 a barrel, Brent crude oil, which is a global standard for Russia’s main export, was down 0.6%.
Stock indexes in Russia were mostly stable.
Even though the week is off to a good start, it might be hard for local indices to take another step up without a major driver given the weakness in oil and other commodities.”
The RTS index, which is measured in dollars, went down 0.3% to 1,059.9 points. The MOEX Russian index, which is based on the rouble, stayed the same at 2,063.7.
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