Russia weakened its defense of the ruble for a fourth time in a month, pushing the currency near a three-year low against the dollar, as the price of the nation’s crude oil fell by a record this week to less than $40 a barrel.
The currency slid as much as 1.2 percent to 28.1344 per dollar and dropped 1 percent to 31.5971 against the central bank’s target basket of euros and dollars. “The corridor has been widened,” a Bank Rossii official who declined to be identified said in a phone interview from Moscow today.
Russia, the world’s largest energy producer, raised interest rates twice last month and drained $143 billion from its foreign-currency reserves to arrest a 17 percent drop in the ruble since August as oil plunged. Urals crude, Russia’s main export blend, slumped 20 percent this week to the lowest in almost three years at $39.82 a barrel, below the $70 average needed for Russia to balance its budget next year.
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