Sergey Vetyshev of SKB-Bank is positive that the continuing decrease in the U.S. dollar exchange rate is inevitable.

‘The dollar has been going down for two days now. The Bank of Russia set the exchange rate at 26.55 RUR per dollar today (which means it is now .001 RUR cheaper). The euro exchange rate was set at 34.38 RUR per euro, which is .007 RUR greater than yesterday,’ Mr Vetyshev says.

‘The dollar reached its local maximum on Friday, January 12, 2007 when its rate came to 1.2864 per euro on the global market and to 26.58 RUR in Russia. The dollar was supported by the data on the U.S. economy released on Friday. The U.S. federal budget surplus last December ($44.5 billion), for instance, has become the top one over the last seven years, and the annual budget deficit figures were much lower than had been expected; besides, the retail sales amounted to twice the amount predicted,’ he observes.

‘Nevertheless, the dollar is still likely to keep decreasing, so the exchange rate might drop by another .9-.1 RUR per dollar at the end of the week.’