The financier predicted the strengthening of the ruble in the coming month

The ruble exchange rate will strengthen in the coming month or remain at the current level amid expectations from the return of Western investors and the resolution of the conflict in Ukraine. This opinion was expressed by financier and investment expert Alexander Bystrov on Friday, April 18.

"I expect that the ruble exchange rate will either remain at the current level or strengthen. This is due to the fact that we expect Western investors to return, and they will continue to buy OFZ [federal loan bonds] — this is the trend that has developed over the past two months," the expert said in an interview with Lenta.Ru .

The financier assumed that investors would return to Russian stocks, and for this they would need the ruble.

"They have a currency, they will sell dollars, euros, yuan, and the ruble exchange rate, so it will continue to strengthen, at the same time, as well as foreign exchange earnings from exporters, although it is slightly decreasing due to the fall in the oil price, but nevertheless the arrival of Western investors and positive expectations for resolving the conflict with Ukraine — they still have more weight in strengthening the ruble," concluded Bystrov.

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Earlier in the day, the dollar exchange rate on the interbank market dropped below 81 rubles at the moment, NSN reports. This happened for the first time since March 18.

The day before, Kirill Kononov, an analyst at BCS World of Investments, told Izvestia that the ruble could strengthen further in April, including the dollar being able to go below 80 for a while if speculative factors converge.

In turn, Alexander Shepelev, an expert on the stock market at BCS World of Investments, expressed the opinion that the ruble may remain stable next week, RT reports.