The ruble continues its catastrophic tumble. In late September, the Russian currency hit the level of 39 rubles against the U.S. dollar for the first time in its history. The previous historical high was 38.93 rubles per dollar. On this sad day in the ruble's financial career, the Russian unit was trading above the mark of 39 rubles on the Moscow stock exchange in the middle of the day and consolidated at the level of 39.10 rubles. In comparison with the previous day's closing mark, the ruble lost 60 kopecks. The promising emerging currency fell off its career ladder dramatically. The main reason according to analysts is worsening sentiments in global capital markets. The mood of the major ruble holders – citizens of the Russian Federation – are even worse due to the recent statement of Bank of Russia's head Elvira Nabiullina, who said that the central bank is developing a shock scenario of economic development for Russia. The officials expect a further decline in world energy prices. Also MED predicts a further ruble depreciation amid the fall in oil prices, "A slump in Russian fuel export prices will lead to lower export earnings in 2015-2017, dropping by $36-45 billion a year, compared with the baseline scenario." At the same time, the head of the Ministry of Economic Development believes in a bright future for the ruble. "I think that the ruble is oversold now due to certain objective circumstances: the third-quarter trade balance is always weaker than in other three-month periods. In addition, it is an effect and movement of capital and crude oil prices. These are some signals that cause investors to doubt the health of our investment climate. This all together gave such a result. We do not intend to correct our three-year forecast on the ruble exchange rate", said Economy Minister Aleksey Ulyukayev.
