Russian Ruble Rises to Highest Level Since 2018

The Russian ruble rose against the US dollar to the highest level in nearly two years during Thursday's trading, with oil gains globally.

The currency benefited from the rise in oil prices globally, including the price of Brent crude, which exceeded the level of $ 67 a barrel, with the importance of crude in Russian government exports and revenues.

Russia's Finance Minister was quoted as saying that his government is considering investing part of the sovereign wealth fund in gold and a number of other precious metals, with the fact that it is more stable in the long run than financial assets.

Meantime, the Russian central bank cut the main interest rate this month to 6.25 percent, amid slowing inflation.

By the end of today's trading, the ruble had stabilized against the US dollar at 61.83 rubles, hitting 61.53 rubles earlier in trading, the highest since April 2018.

The 2014–2015 financial crisis in Russia, which caused a sharp devaluation of the ruble was mainly a result of least two major events. The first is the fall in the price of oil in 2014 and the second came as a result of economic sanctions imposed on Russia following its annexation of Crimea and military intervention in Ukraine.