MOSCOW: The Russian rouble weakened slightly on Monday to around 97.5 to the dollar as capital controls obliging certain exporters to sell a portion of their foreign currency earnings domestically came into force.
At 0712 GMT, the rouble was 0.2% weaker against the dollar at 97.47, holding onto gains made last week as the currency pulled back from a more than 18-month low of 102.3450.
It had lost 0.5% to trade at 102.64 versus the euro and was steady against the yuan at 13.31.
From Monday, 43 groups of exporting firms will be required to deposit no less than 80% of foreign currency earnings with Russian banks and then sell at least 90% of those proceeds on the domestic market within two weeks, the government said on Friday.
The rouble jumped about 3% in one session last week after President Vladimir Putin signed a decree mandating the reintroduction of capital controls similar to those imposed shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Moscow has said it will not publish the list of companies affected.
The stated requirements correspond to a minimum sales volume of 72%, said Alor Broker’s Alexei Antonov. “This is not much, in some months exporters sold much more FX on average,” Antonov said.
“So for now this decision is providing rather limited support to the rouble.”
Rouble weakens again after limited reprieve from central bank interventions
But exporters must also pay month-end taxes and tend to start selling FX in anticipation of that from the second half of the month onwards, which may now give the rouble additional support.
Russia also expects high oil prices to have a slightly delayed impact.
The finance ministry is counting on tax revenues from energy companies to rise in October. Brent crude oil, a global benchmark for Russia’s main export, was down 0.2% at $90.71 a barrel, a near two-week high.
Russian stock indexes were higher.
The dollar-denominated RTS index was up 0.6% to 1,040.2 points. The rouble-based MOEX Russian index was 0.8% higher at 3,218.4 points.
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