Economist predicted the ruble exchange rate in February

Economist, associate professor of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation Peter Shcherbachenko told on Tuesday, February 4, about the future ruble exchange rate.

According to the expert, in January 2025, the ruble strengthened by 4%, reaching the mark of 98 per dollar. Scherbachenko explained the growth of the Russian currency by seasonality - January and February are months with low demand for currency from importers.

He added that other factors also had a positive impact on the ruble exchange rate, such as increased currency sales by importers to pay taxes and rising oil prices.

"As for the forecast for February, the dollar exchange rate may continue to remain in the range of 90-98 rubles per dollar, unless there are significant changes in economic policy and geopolitical situation. For the end of February, it is possible that the dollar-ruble pair will slightly rise within the range of Br95-99 per dollar," he said in a conversation with Lenta.Ru.

The expert attributed primarily to the factors affecting the value of the currency, monetary policy, including decisions of the Central Bank (CB) on the key rate, fluctuations in global oil prices and geopolitical situation.

With the new ruble: what awaits the Russian currency in the first quarter of 2025

If nothing extraordinary happens, the ruble will remain at the current levels in January - March

On January 31, Nikita Maslennikov, economist and leading expert of the Center for Political Technologies, expressed his opinion in a conversation with "Moscow 24" that in February the currency market will be influenced by two factors - the dynamics of oil prices and geopolitics.

According to him, the currency market may be affected, in particular, by the US customs duties, and any tightening of them should work in favor of the dollar, RT reports.

Earlier, on January 30, First Deputy Chairman of the Bank of Russia Vladimir Chistyukhin said during the presentation of the program that the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) and Moscow Exchange plan to launch a new stock market index in July 2025 as part of a program to create shareholder value for companies. According to him, the new index will include securities of issuers selected according to special criteria - companies will be selected according to certain financial indicators, the quality of corporate governance and the level of information transparency.