Recently, emerging countries have been under positive pressure of the Ukrainian crisis. First of all, military action in Eastern Ukraine encouraged the national currencies growth. Unfortunately, Russia did not benefit from it: the ruble is falling further against the US dollar and euro. At the same time, the exchange rates of some other emerging currencies are rapidly rising. The most impressive growth was shown by the Indian rupee and the South African rand. Since the crisis started, these units have gained 1.6% each versus the greenback. The composite emerging currencies index, including 20 monetary units of developing nations, has gained 0.8% since mid-July. Experts noted that ahead of this jump, the index had been at the lowest level in a month. Leading world agencies believe the current dynamic is the result of massive withdrawal of funds from Russian assets and their investing in assets of other developing countries from Turkey to Indonesia. Since the beginning of July, direct investment funds have pulled more than $200 million from Russia; since late February, the number has reached $348 million, but the warning sign is that the tendency persists and money are flowing away from the Russian markets. During several weeks, the ruble has been paring its gains abruptly against major currencies. Thus, against the buck, it depreciated to 35.19 from 34.38 per dollar. July 17, the situation in Ukraine worsened after Malaysian Airlines' Boeing 777 was downed in a military operations area. All people on-board died. Kiev and the rebels blamed each other, while the US pointed the finger at Russia. Moscow was alleged to supply weapons and to train staff for the Buk air defense missile system, which might be used to shoot down the aircraft.
