Causes of further ruble crash

The price of the ruble has been dropping since early 2014. The cost of the dual-currency basket ($0.55 and 0.45 euro) has increased to 48.2 rubles. Dmitry Piskulov, Chairman of the Board of the National Currency Association, said that the main reason for the trend was oil prices and outflow of capital. 25% of Russian foreign trade consists of oil exports. Russia sold oil for $86 billion in 2013. Piskulov described oil prices as stable.

Concerning capital outflow, the expert reminded that the economic growth rate had dropped to 1%, so the oil price had little impact on the ruble price. He rules out any dramatic changes on the world oil markets.

Yevgeny Fedorov, a member of the Russian parliament committee for budget and taxes, said that the Russian Central Bank had violated the Constitution by abstaining from supporting the ruble. He pointed out that reserves of $1.5 trillion were given to the financial institution to back the ruble. The MP believes that the Central Bank should admit its failure and launch other mechanisms.

Fedorov is confident that the Central Bank can stabilize the currency. The country should switch to domestic investment mechanisms and ban foreign loans to the Russian economy in order to achieve a dramatic economic boost and strengthen the currency.