The ruble fell again Wednesday in the biggest two-day decline against the dollar this year as oil tumbled and concern that Europe’s debt crisis will derail economic recovery damped appetite for riskier assets.
The currency depreciated 1.6 percent, the most in more than two months, to 29.98 per dollar in Moscow trading. That brought its two-day drop to 2.7 percent, the most since Dec. 8.
Crude for June delivery slipped as much as 2.9 percent to $80.31 per barrel in New York, adding to Tuesday’s 4 percent fall. The dollar climbed to the highest level against the euro in more than a year on concern that Europe’s debt crisis is spreading.
“From a contagion perspective, Russia, with negligible external debt, should, in theory, not be that impacted by the euro debt crisis,” said Peter Westin, chief strategist at Aton Capital. “That said, in practice this is not true.”
(Bloomberg)
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