When a government is completely not interested in national currency strengthening, external factors are the only hope. This time, the US and China became positive outside forces for the Russian ruble’s growth. News reports related to these countries have been a growth catalyst for the Russian currency which has started regaining ground versus the US dollar and the euro.
So, not only the wind of change is blowing from the American side, but real hurricanes are also coming! A few hurricanes one by one attacked the Mexican Gulf coast. The first one was Harvey, then Irma, and Katia is next. The chaos seriously damaged the oil infrastructure from production to refining. While the US crude oil lost in price due to lack of demand, Brent futures in London rallied at a glance, by 2.4%, within three hours, hitting the May high of $53.66 per barrel. Expensive crude oil is always good for the Russian ruble.
As for China, very important words were said there. In order to weaken sanction pressure, Russia’s president agreed to involve a UN peacekeeping force for eastern Ukraine to protect the OSCE monitoring mission tasked to observe the security situation in the region. This decision had a positive impact on the geopolitical situation around Russia’s participation in Ukraine’s conflict.
