Russia’s rouble weakened against the dollar and euro in volatile trade on Thursday, reversing gains made at the market opening, before President Vladimir Putin’s end-of-year news conference.

At 0822 GMT, the rouble was around 3 per cent weaker against the dollar at 61.92 after opening more than 1 per cent higher. The rouble was also around 2 per cent weaker versus the euro at 76.49.

Putin will hold his press conference at 0900 GMT, with the market hoping to hear support for the rouble, which has fallen around 45 per cent against the dollar so far this year.

Rally in early trade

The rouble rallied in early trading today ahead of President Vladimir Putin’s eagerly-awaited annual press conference, where he is expected to give his views on the financial crisis rocking Russia.

The rouble was trading at around 58 to the dollar and 72 to the euro — the levels of last Friday — after closing at 60.65 to the dollar and 75.10.

Putin will begin his press conference at 0900 GMT. The marathon event sees him face hundreds of journalists from all over Russia.

The Kremlin has remained silent this week on the issue of the rouble’s crash, which took it to historic lows of 80 to the dollar and 100 to the euro and led Russians to rush to exchange their savings and make a run on stores to dump the devaluing national currency ahead of expected price hikes.

Economy minister Alexei Ulyukayev told Vedomosti daily in an interview published on Thursday that Russia’s economy was going through a “crisis’’.

“I guess we found ourselves in a perfect storm, and I guess it’s not an accident. Because in some way we prepared this storm ourselves,” he said in an interview conducted on Monday, before the record Tuesday crash of the rouble.

“We are issuing ad hoc reactions, the situation is so unpredictable that we cannot be ready for future changes,” he admitted.

Several observers have said that the record slump of the rouble has to do not only with the global decrease of oil prices on which Russia depends, and Russia’s financial isolation due to Western sanctions over Ukraine, but also the perceived lack of strategy by the leadership during the worst economic crisis of Putin’s 15 years in power.

The government this week said they were preparing a set of measures to save the rouble, which Putin is expected to outline on Thursday.

The state statistics agency had said on Wednesday that real wages have declined in the first 11 months of the year for the first time in years.

Both the economy ministry and the central bank have warned of recession next year, with the latter saying the contraction could be up to 4.8 per cent at current oil prices, with a recovery not expected until 2017.

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