My father owns a medium-sized business in Samara, Russia, (some sort of an industrial technological company… I’ve been so detached from his development that I am no more up-to-date on his business ventures) and whenever I a
sk him about the current economic crisis, he gets confused and confuses everybody.
At first he says the crisis is drastic. Two weeks ago he canceled my parents’ long-planned trip to Cuba, because he “only had theoretical money.” Basically, he’d started a few projects and had to halt them, because no down payments were coming in. Last week he scrambled and did find money for the vacation, saying the crisis is really blown out of proportion by the media – just like it was some time earlier in the U.S. Yesterday, however, I sensed fright and despair in his voice again.
After my first conversation with dad, I called my friend Mike in Moscow. He’s an American citizen, working for a U.S. company in Russia’s capital. I asked him how bad the crisis in Russia really was. Mike said the Russian government had so many assets under its control, it wouldn’t allow any dramatic drop in the power of a ruble. Besides, he said, he got paid in dollars, which made him richer every day the dollar gained strength compared to the Russian currency.
My parents started changing rubles into dollars and puttin them into all sorts of bank accounts in August. “In case something goes wrong,” they said. It appears, Russians altogether bought $6 billion in September alone, a month before the rouble’s liquidity crisis peaked, according to Gazeta.Ru. Russia’s Central Bank hasn’t published the statistics for October or November, but the amounts are predicted to be even higher. Such high dollar purchases haven’t been observed since 1999 at least. That was the first year the Central Bank started publishing it – a year after the greatest default in Russian modern history.
Russian Central Bank has been restraining the ruble’s devaluation process, but reports not being able to continue the effort as successfully anymore. Experts predict a slow but continuous depreciation of the currency. Right now a dollar costs 27.47 rubles, almost 4 rubles up since last month.
Самым лучшим образом, уверен Андрей Маринченко. По мнению специалиста, в случае признания рубля расчетной валютой спрос на него со стороны китайских компаний и рядовых китайцев резко возрастет. Соответственно, позиции российской национальной валюты укрепятся, а заодно укрепится и ее авторитет в мире. банки Барнаула Стоит добавить к этому, что в России будет меньше потрясений, связанных с падениями фондового рынка и меньше страхов по поводу возможности грядущей девальвации или ревальвации. Просто потому, что куда менее заметной станет роль доллара, который за последние годы стяжал себе репутацию весьма нестабильной валюты.
Comment by novosel — November 13, 2008 @ 11:09 am