The strengthening of the ruble against other currencies was due to the decision to close foreign exchange correspondent accounts of all Russian banks, except Raiffeisen Bank’s local subsidiary. About this RIA Novosti declaration Investment director of Lokoinvest company Dmitry Polevoy.
We attribute Friday’s sharp growth of the ruble only to financial flows, perhaps due to news from Raiffeisen. We keep the 74-76 ruble dollar rate forecast on the horizon of three to six months,” Polevoy said.
According to him, the news about the closure of correspondent accounts is a clear reminder of the “toxicity” of currencies from unfriendly countries. So keeping such a currency in Russia is quite dangerous and inconvenient.
He added that the dollar rate will be quite volatile in the near future, but even a range of 70 to 80 rubles can be considered normal in terms of balance of payments.
Management of the Austrian banking group Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) on May 5 accepted the decision to terminate the correspondent relationship with all Russian banks. The only exception was Raiffeisenbank, its own subsidiary in Russia.
It is known that at the beginning of this year, the level of business activity of RBI in the Russian market has decreased. The Austrian organization minimized its presence on the territory of the Russian Federation. This was because of the difficulty of doing business on the backdrop of international sanctions.