Lately, there is more information on the improvement of the Russian economy. The record number of futures contracts for RUB/USD on the Chicago Mercantile exchange is another indicator of Russia’s success. According to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, in just one week, American investors bought 2,553 ruble futures; in turn, the number of futures to sell or short contracts decreased by 5,004. Thus, while the US dollar is declining, the ruble is winning favor with investors in the US. In other words, more investors are betting on the ruble’s strength. Indeed, long contracts account for the bulk of the total 7,557 contracts for just one week. This is a record high since 2010, when the Chicago stock exchange began to trade ruble futures.
Remarkably, some experts insist that the ruble credits its strength neither to Russia’s Ministry of Finance nor Ministry of Economic Development nor the Bank of Russia. From their viewpoint, currencies of emerging markets, including the Russian ruble, found support from a softer stance of the Federal Reserve on monetary policy. This means that borrowing funds for buying the ruble would remain relatively cheap.
Besides, the new bill on US sanctions against Russia prohibits American residents from buying newly-issued Russian bonds, but it does not apply to already circulating ones.
