Affected by this, the Russian ruble embarked on the "downward road" and fell to the lowest point this year on March 7, 2022: 1 ruble was exchanged for 0.0064 US dollars, less than 1 cent, which was 50% lower than before the conflict. Subsequently, the Russian ruble staged a shocking reversal, not only recovering lost ground, but also rising all the way. On May 24th, 1 ruble was once exchanged at the highest of 0.0 18 USD, which was nearly 200% higher than the previous lowest point and over 35% higher than that at the beginning of the year. After entering June, the exchange rate was basically stable at around 1 ruble to 0.0 16 USD.
The British "Guardian" published a commentary saying that Russia is winning the economic war launched by the West. A series of western sanctions not only failed to destroy the Russian economy, but also pushed up energy prices, aggravated inflation in western countries and strengthened the ruble exchange rate. Russia requires "unfriendly" countries and regions that conduct natural gas trade with Russia to open ruble accounts in Russian banks for natural gas trade settlement, otherwise Russia will regard it as a breach of contract.
"This ruble settlement order forced more than 20 European companies to use rubles to buy Russian natural gas, which supported the ruble exchange rate on the demand side. Considering the increasing demand for natural gas reserves this winter, the ruble exchange rate is expected to gain greater support on the demand side. " Pang Wei said that Russia also allows enterprises and individuals to repay debts of "unfriendly" countries and regions with rubles, which not only maintains international credit, but also partially offsets the pressure of devaluation of the ruble.
The Russian central bank urgently raised interest rates sharply to stabilize market volatility, enhance the willingness to save rubles, and reduce the motivation for depositors to run and sell rubles to buy foreign currency in disguise. Russia has adopted a package of temporary capital control measures to stabilize the ruble exchange rate, such as restricting residents from withdrawing excess foreign currency from foreign currency bank accounts or remitting money to foreign bank accounts, restricting foreign customers from withdrawing specific foreign currency or selling ruble assets, and requiring oil and gas exporters to sell 80% of their foreign exchange earnings to buy rubles.
He also mentioned that Russia's NSPK national payment system and Mir payment card, to a certain extent, avoided the inconvenience caused by the withdrawal of international payment giants from Russia and the removal of Russia from the SWIFT network, and ensured the normal operation of Russian domestic banking transactions.
Objectively speaking, Pang Ming said that the international community's strong demand for Russian oil and gas, agricultural products, raw materials and other commodities has brought Russia a trade surplus, and the international market has constantly revised its expectations for energy prices, which has supported the ruble exchange rate to get out of the "V" situation of rebound and skyrocketing, and weakened the effect of western sanctions against Russia.