Rouble depreciation: The Moscow Times has compiled a list of the knock-on effect that the rouble’s devaluation has had on Russia’s former Soviet trading partners:
- Armenia: dram has fallen by about 15% in the past year, and the central bank raised interest rates on Feb. 10 by a point to 10.5%.
- Azerbaijan: On Monday, the government in Baku announced that it had abandoned the dollar-manat peg in favour of a dollar-euro basket. Azeri reserves fell by $1bn last month.
- Belarus: The central bank devalued the Belarus rouble by 18% in a series of steps last month and is now forecasting the currency a weakening of between 3% and 7% against the euro-dollar-Russian rouble basket over the course of 2015.
- Georgia: The central bank raised interest rates on Feb. 11 and sold $40m to support its lari currency which has depreciated around 10 %already this year against the dollar.
- Kazakhstan: After devaluating the tenge against the dollar last February, Kazakhstan has refused to devalue again despite its currency’s appreciation against the rouble.
- Moldova: The official rate of Moldova’s lei has fallen by 25% fell by 1.9 % to a new record low.
- Turkmenistan: On January 1, Gas-rich Turkmenistan devalued the manat by 19%.
- Ukraine: The hryvna has fallen about 40% since Feb. 5 when the central bank abandoned the dollar auctions it had been using to support its currency. The country only has enough reserves to pay for five weeks of imports.
Source: The Moscow Times