/ world today news/ The Russian economy can benefit from the fall of the ruble by increasing the volume of its exports, financier Soumaya Keynes, who writes about the “Big Mac” index of The Economist magazine.
“At the moment, it appears that the Russian economy has not yet fully benefited from the collapse of the ruble,” Keynes said. “Imports are falling, but exports are weak. Let’s hope it’s just because things take time.”
According to the financier, a weak ruble could help the Russian economy in the medium term by “making manufacturing companies more competitive in international markets.” However, she noted that low levels of exports and a lack of skilled and mobile labor are holding back the Russian economy.
On January 9, The Economist published its 2016 Big Mac Index, which aims to determine whether global currency exchange rates are at the “right” levels. According to the magazine, the Russian ruble is 69% undervalued against the US dollar, making it “one of the cheapest currencies in the world”.
Since the beginning of 2014, the ruble has halved against the US dollar amid economic sanctions imposed on Moscow by the West over the Ukraine crisis, as well as a global collapse in oil prices.
Meanwhile, “Izvestia” published data according to which in 2014 the ruble devalued by 44.2% against the dollar, ranking second among the most depreciated currencies in the world. In 2015, it lost 20.3% of its value against the US currency and is now in 22nd place in the ranking based on data from the Bloomberg statistical service. The rate of the Russian central bank for January 14 is 76.43 rubles to $1 and 82.72 rubles to €1.
The leader in the anti-ranking for 2015 is the Azerbaijani manat (down by 49.9%). Last year’s number one, the Ukrainian hryvnia, is now in fifth place. Its position this year is occupied by the Kazakhstan tenge, followed by the Zambian kwacha.
#Financier #Russia #didnt #full #advantage #ruble #collapse
