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Rouble slides to new lows

Friday 11.00 GMT . The rouble has touched new lows against the dollar and the euro amid concern about the implications of the Russian central bank’s softer policy on defending the currency. The Central Bank of Russia said on Wednesday it would not spend more than $350m a day buying roubles to ease the currency’s slide, pledging to allow the exchange rate to be determined “predominantly by market factors”, although it stands ready to make one-off interventions. More On this story Hard choices facing rouble’s defenders Tensions rise as Putin defends Nazi pact Sergei Guriev Russia and low oil prices Inside Business Russia begins to feel sanctions impact beyondbrics Rouble’s slide revives memories of dark days of 1998 and 2008 Global Market Overview Euro at 2-year low after Draghi comments Stocks rise on Republican win, jobs data Stocks cool as crude hits multiyear lows Wall Street rally fades The […]

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Sanctions bite for Russia, European Commission says

Sanctions cloud economic prospects for a Russian economy dependent on oil and gas exports, European Commission report finds. UPI/Alex Volgin BRUSSELS, Nov. 4 (UPI) — Sanctions on a Russian economy that depends largely on the export of natural resources are taking "a heavy toll," the European Commission said Tuesday. The EC published its autumn outlook on regional economies. An October stress test on European banks found they’d be able to withstand financial crises, though European Commissioner for Investment Jyrki Katainen said in a statement the situation in Europe "is not improving fast enough. Real growth in gross domestic product member states is expected to reach 1.3 percent for 2014 and increase to 1.5 percent by next year. In its analysis for Russia, the EC said the economy there was entering a period of stagflation . "Geopolitical tensions over the situation in Ukraine, including sanctions, have exacerbated existing structural bottlenecks […]

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Russia acts to steady rouble by raising rates to 9.5%

A Russian national flag flies above the headquarters of Bank Rossii, Russia’s central bank, in Moscow, Russia, on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2013. The ruble gained for a fifth day as Chinese economic data improved and a Russian proposal for Syria to surrender its chemical weapons eased concern over a U.S. strike, boosting investor appetite for riskier assets. Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg ©Bloomberg Russia’s central bank has raised its key interest rate by 150 basis points to 9.5 per cent in an attempt to stem the steady weakening of the rouble in the face of international sanctions and the crisis in Ukraine. The rouble has plunged 23 per cent against the dollar since the start of the year, losing 9 per cent against the US currency in the past three weeks. On Thursday the rouble fell to 55 against the euro, a record low for the Russian currency. More On this […]

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Russian oil: Between a rock and a hard place

4683 Votes Russian oil: Between a rock and a hard place One of Russia’s most powerful men stood on stage at New York’s St Regis Hotel with a conciliatory message for America. “The relationship between the US and Russia has been severely hampered by historical stereotypes,” said Igor Sechin, a former Soviet intelligence officer and now the dominant force in the Russian energy industry. “But we have long ceased to be adversaries. It is time for us to become strategic partners.” It was April 2012. With those words, Mr Sechin signed a wide-ranging partnership between Rosneft, Russia’s state oil company, and ExxonMobil – in the process throwing open the doors of Russia’s vast oil wealth to the western energy industry. Today, the partnership envisaged by Mr Sechin, Rosneft chief executive, is in tatters. Under pressure of western sanctions, Exxon has frozen all 10 of its joint ventures with Rosneft, […]

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The ‘Russification’ of Oil Exploration

MOSCOW — The American and European sanctions against the Russian oil industry have dashed, at least for now, the Western oil majors’ ambitions to drill in the Arctic Ocean. But drilling will continue all the same, Russian government and state oil company officials have been taking pains to point out, ever since the sanctions took effect over the summer. “We will do it on our own,” Igor I. Sechin, the president of Russia’s state-controlled oil company, Rosneft, told journalists in October. “We’ll continue drilling here next year and the years after that.” Rather than throw in the towel in the face of Western sanctions intended to halt Russia’s Arctic oil ambitions by stopping technology transfers, the Russians have responded with plans to “Russify” the technology to be deployed in the world’s largest effort to date to extract oil from the thawing Arctic Ocean. The solution to tapping the Arctic, […]

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Rosneft defiant amid sanctions pressure

Spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin denies report oil company Rosneft is preparing action to counter Western sanctions pressure. (File/UPI/David Silpa) MOSCOW, Oct. 29 (UPI) — A Russian government spokesman said Wednesday there was no truth about clams oil company Rosneft was looking for protection against Western sanctions. State-controlled Rosneft said it would work to protect its reputation after a report in Russian business daily Kommersant said it sent proposals to President Vladimir Putin to restrict some of its operations in an effort to protect itself from sanctions. "This is completely untrue," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Rosneft said the claims were aimed at provoking more action from Western governments frustrated with the Kremlin’s stance on upheavals in post-Soviet Ukraine. The company threatened to file suit against Kommersant for their publication. Rosneft is the target of Western economic sanctions imposed in response to Russian policies in eastern Ukraine. Igor […]

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Europe Strives to Overcome Its Reliance on Russian Gas

LONDON — In the early 1980s, the Reagan administration warned its West European allies about their growing dependence on Russian gas. The Europeans paid no heed. They had found the Soviet Union to be a reliable supplier of gas over the previous decade, and they all — Margaret Thatcher included — refused to comply with a United States demand to stop their companies from selling technology with American origins to build new pipelines to bring more gas to Western Europe from Siberia. Now, the Ukraine crisis has opened up a deep political rift with Russia, Europe’s largest single foreign supplier of not only gas, but also oil , coal and nuclear fuel — and that long-ago warning by the United States looks prescient. For Europe, growing reliance on imported fossil fuels is a fact of life that will not change greatly for years. Europe’s domestic production of oil, gas […]

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Rosneft Extends Monthly Decline Before Earnings Report

OAO Rosneft, the Russian state-run oil company targeted by international sanctions, headed for a fourth monthly decline before it reports what analysts estimate will be the first drop in dollar revenue since 2009. The stock fell 0.8 percent to $5.37 in London , pushing this month’s retreat to 7.9 percent. The ruble weakened 0.8 percent to 42.28 per dollar, extending a three-month drop to 17 percent, the biggest among emerging-market currencies. Oil touched a 28-month low in New York . Rosneft’s third-quarter earnings report today will show a 12 percent drop in dollar revenue from a year earlier, according to the average of 11 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. “The stock is under enormous pressure, and if we see the ruble continue to plunge and the sanctions continue to squeeze the economy, this pressure will deepen,” Sergei Pigarev, an analyst at Rye, Man & Gor Securities in Moscow, said […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple