Russian Currency Ruble On The Brink Of Collapse After Falling Over 50% Since Ukraine War

It's been nearly two weeks since Russia invaded and declared war on Ukraine. This period has witnessed economic turmoil all across the world, with Russia being no exception.

The Russian currency Ruble has been hit hard this year, especially since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th.

In the recent week, Ruble has been continuously hitting new lows.

Reuters

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The ruble fell to a fresh record low mark of 137 to a dollar on Monday, signalling a decline of more than 10% from Friday¡¯s close, according to a report in TheWallStreetJournal. The reason behind this latest fall is reported to be the inability of traders to buy and sell the Russian currency, which has become more limited as fewer banks want to settle transactions against it in the offshore market.

Russian markets were also closed on Monday, which is likely to have further reduced the number of trades happening. The country¡¯s markets were shut last week as well, as Russia tried to contain the fallout from sweeping Western sanctions in response to Moscow¡¯s invasion of Ukraine.

As per a Reuters report, Russian markets are expected to remain closed for trading until at least Wednesday.

The Massive Fall Of Ruble

The ruble's value has fluctuated against the dollar since the start of the year, but losses have sharply accelerated since Russia invaded Ukraine.

According to currency converter platforms Wise & Xe, which show real-time mid-market exchange rates, Ruble sat close to 137 against 1USD (at the time of writing this story), or implying that 1 Ruble equalled just 0072887726 USD.

Tracking the movement of the Ruble against the US Dollar, let¡¯s have a look at its value changes since January 1, 2022. On the first day of the new year, Ruble sat at 74.79, 76.23 on Jan 15th, 77.31 on Feb 1st and 75.45 on Feb 15th.

And since the invasion began on 24th, Ruble¡¯s value has deteriorated massively.

On 24th Feb, Ruble was close to 85.34 against 1USD, 83.64 on Feb 25th,100.293 on Feb 28th, 102.58 on March 2nd, 122.5 on March 5th and 130.3 on March 8th, as per Xe.com. The fall from Feb 24th till yesterday signals a drop of Ruble''s value over 50% since the war began.

Also Read: How Russia-Ukraine War Is Pushing Debt-ridden Sri Lanka Towards A Possible Default

White House¡¯s Statement

Yesterday, the Joe Biden administration claimed that Russia has become a global economic pariah after it attacked Ukraine. The international community has joined the US in imposing tough sanctions against Moscow.

US President Joe Biden termed the package of economic sanctions enforced against Russia "most significant in history" and claimed that it has caused consequential damage to the Russian economy.

"It has caused the Russian economy to crater. The Ruble is now down 50 per cent and worth less than one American penny since Putin announced his war," he told reporters at the White House after announcing an immediate ban on import of Russian oil and gas.

US President Joe Biden also announced yesterday that the US would ban the import of Russian oil and gas, "targeting the main artery of Russia's economy" in response to its invasion of Ukraine.

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