Although a strong momentum in ruble at the beginning of this week isn’t yet expected, thereafter traders will likely see a notable advance due to the approaching tax payment period (due on January 29). Correspondingly, Russian exporters will prop up the national currency by increasing the volume of foreign currency proceeds’ sales. Under these circumstances, there is a possibility that the dollar exchange rate may weaken to the level of the end of June last year – 85 rubles/$1. On Monday, the trading is occurring within the range of 87.5–80 rubles/$1.

After the announcement of the volume of planned sales by the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance, which together may reach 16.7 billion rubles per day, the RUB/USD growth since January 10 reached 1.14%.

Given the new data from the Ministry of Finance, from January 15 to January 31, 2024, the Central Bank will increase the sale of foreign currency to Rub 16.7 billion per day, while from February 1 to 6 it will sell Rub 15.9 billion (from January 9 to 12 it had been selling currencies for the amount of Rub 900 million per day).