The White House revealed that Donald Trump intends to sign a bill that imposes new sanctions on Russia. However, Russian economic experts doubt this will hurt the ruble much.
This sanctions issue has been going on for three years and the economic impact from sanctions has already been priced in the ruble exchange rate, Associate Professor of the Banking Department at the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics Lazar Badalov stated. That is why ordinary Russians do not have to panic over a new package of sanctions that are to be signed by the US President.
Currently, it is better to keep an eye on the situation in the crude market as the oil price has a greater influence on the Russian currency. OPEC and some non-member countries announced their readiness to extend the production curb agreement beyond the specified data (March of 2018). Meanwhile, crude oil production keeps advancing in the United States, which undermines the ruble harder than sanctions. This is the reason for the current downtrend in the Russian currency. Speculators were also behind the ruble’s weakness as they are selling it off after large purchases at the year’s beginning.
All in all, the ruble has enough troubles to worry about besides the sanctions. Russia’s Ministry of Economic Development forecasts that on average the one US dollar will be worth 64 rubles amid the oil price of 45 dollars a barrel in 2017.
