8/4/15: Ruble's Gains Are Convincing, But Risks Remain

Three charts:

Russian car sales

Source: @moved_average 

Down 42.5% y/y in March (estimated 43% decline).

Ruble v Dollar is going up and up:

Source: @Schuldensuehner 

Ruble v Euro is also up and up...

Source: @Schuldensuehner 


Linking all three? The myth of Ruble liquidity squeeze (e.g. here and here). Reality: sharp drop in imports, slight improvement in oil prices (and more importantly stabilisation of the trend to the upside) and improving conditions in the domestic banking sector are all driving ruble value up.

Another strong contributing factor is timing of external debt redemptions:

Source: https://www.tradingfloor.com/posts/pop-goes-the-rouble-4296859

These are now past their 2015 peaks.

All positive, but uncertainty remains and is still extremely high, so I would not be surprised if ruble starts posting some losses in and around the end of Q2.