Ruble grows amid growing oil

Oil prices, after falling the day before, began to recover gradually due to a thorough implementation of the agreement on the production cuts.

Thus, the March futures for Brent crude oil on London's ICE Futures exchange rose by $ 0.17 (0.31%), up to $ 56.64 per barrel at14:35 today by Moscow time, and the February futures price for WTI crude oil  increased by $ 0.16 (0.31%), up to $ 52.49 per barrel at the electronic trading in the system of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), Interfax reports.

Following the stabilization of the situation in the world oil markets, the ruble has begun to strengthen: during the trade session at the Moscow Exchange  this afternoon it remained stable with respect to the basket, slightly recouping the US dollar, partially due to the strengthening of the euro.

The exchange rate was 60.8325 rubles per $ 1 at 15:00, which is only 7 cents below the closing level of the previous trading session, the euro cost 63.4875 rubles, increasing by 7.75 kopecks. The dual currency basket value declined only by 0.36 kopecks to 62.03 rubles.

Yesterday, WTI fell by 2,6%, Brent - by 2.4%. Experts believe that an important role  was played by Libya, which is not subjected to OPEC's agreement and increasing production at the country's largest oil field, Al-Sharara. It is expected that this month almost 1.9 million barrels of oil will be shipped from it via the port of Az-Zawiya, near Tripoli, the Libyan capital. In addition, the traders are waiting for data on changes in the US oil inventories over the last week, which will be released tomorrow. According to analysts, oil inventories in the country fell by 2.25 million barrels during the last week.

In general, according to foreign financial publications, there is a significant strengthening of the Russian economy. So, British monthly The Banker specializing on international finance called the chairman of the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) Elvira Nabiullina the best chairman of the year among the chairmen of the European Central Banks.

Nabiullina has always pointed to the need to reduce inflation to improve the economic growth in Russia, and its efforts as the head of the Central Bank led to the fact that the rate of inflation by the end of 2016 fell below 6% from 12.9% in 2015 - the newspaper notes, reporting, that, according to the International Monetary Fund, the inflation in Russia's recent history never fell below 6.1%.

"It is important that 2016 was a turning point in the mood of the population and market participants in terms of the inflation expectations. At the beginning of 2016 the inflation expectations of the market participants were above our targets for inflation - 4% by the end of 2017 year - but now they are close to the target at the level of 4.5-4.7%,’’  Nabiullina told to the magazine.

The publication also noted the work of the Chairman of the Central Bank on the improvement of health of the banking sector - in 2014, the regulator revoked the licenses of about 300 credit institutions.

The Bank of Russia jointly with the Ministry of Finance is working on the concept of the new pension system. ‘’The pension funds must become the most important source of the long-term resources for the Russian economy. We hope, that the draft resolution on this issue will be adopted by the Parliament in 2017,’’ Nabiullina said.

Recall a year ago, according to The Banker, the best chairman of the Central Bank in this region became the head of the Bank of England, Governor Mark Carney.