DiabloWags said:
Cal88 said:
First of all, Russia is doing well economically, its currency has strengthened and has been remarkably stable in 2022. In fact the Rouble has been the strongest currency in the world:
When someone claims that the Russian Ruble has been remarkably stable in 2022.
If this is what someone thinks is "stable" . . . I'd hate to know what their definition of "volatile" is.
Bad rhetoric, Wags, that's the kind of bad faith argument that lawyers like U2sucks like to indulge in.
Facts about the Rouble:
-it has been the target of concerted attacks by the US and western allies.
Biden declared that the Rouble will turn to rubble, while Bruno Lemaire, the French minister of economy, outright declared that NATO had entered an economic war on Russia, putting in place policies and sanctions with the stated goal of crashing their economyand currency. That gambit has clearly failed, any honest observer will admit to this.
The volatility you see above, which took place in the month after the start of the war, reflects that multifront attack on the Rouble. Russia fended off these attacks through policies set in place by their central bank, like the temporary spike in interest rates and controls on capital flows, but since then their currency has stabilized and strengthened mostly due to their positive trade balance, as countries like China and India boosted their imports of Russian oil and gas exports.
The Rouble's volatility has since then subsided, as the short and medium term fundamentals of Russian trade balance look solid. Russia has effectively pegged their currency to their commodities, not just oil and gas, but also grains, metals (including gold), fertilizer etc, items which are in high demand globally and hose price has skyrocketed. Those are the fundamentals underlying the current strength and stability of the Rouble. As well, Russia has virtually no debt with a debt to GDP ratio among the lowest in the world, and they have large gold and currency reserves.
Since then the Russian govt has relaxed its emergency measures, dropping interest rates to 7.5%, a level that is commensurate with their pre-war historic levels:
BTW Russian mortgage rates today are similar to those in the US, and will likely become lower than in the US in years to come:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1054512/mortgage-loan-interest-rate-russia/Year over year, the Rouble has been the strongest currency in the world. At one point the Rouble broke the 50/$ barrier, which some Russian officials felt was starting to hurt the prospects of Russian non-energy exports. They would like the Rouble to stay in the 55-65 range, which it has.