An analyst explained the growth of the dollar exchange rate

The growth of the dollar exchange rate was influenced by the purchase of foreign currency by banks. This was reported to "Izvestia" by analyst of FG "Finam" Alexander Potavin on December 27.

Earlier in the day, the dollar rate on the international currency market Forex exceeded Br107. At the same time on December 6, the dollar fell below Br99.

However, according to the Russian Central Bank, December 27, the U.S. currency was at Br99, while December 28, the rate is set at Br100.5.

Potavin noted that banks, as a rule, buy currency at the close of the year - it's a kind of insurance against risks before the long New Year holidays. According to him, this is their usual practice at the end of December. Since at the very end of the year liquidity in the markets is traditionally low, even insignificant bids to buy currency on the OTC market can collect all available bids for sale, resulting in a sharp increase in volatility in the ruble exchange rate, the analyst explained.

"For example, today, December 27, in four hours of trading, the USD/RUB pair jumped by more than 5%, to 105.45 rubles, and then just as quickly corrected to 103.8 rubles. This is the cost of the over-the-counter market, where liquidity is now much less than it used to be at the Moscow Exchange," he said.

Potavin added that probably in this regard, the regulator decided to set official rates of foreign currencies against the ruble on the basis of combined data from exchange and OTC segments of the currency market.

"That is, the Central Bank, realizing that the currency market is now thin, is trying to somehow smooth out these fluctuations in determining the official exchange rates," the analyst concluded.

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Earlier, December 6, the head of Sberbank German Gref said that there is no room for a serious weakening of the ruble. In his opinion, the dollar rate at the end of the next year, 2025 will be approximately 112-115 rubles. At the same time, he admitted that while some weakening of the national currency is indeed present, but no surprises are expected: the ruble exchange rate will fluctuate depending on the situation.