As punishment for their invasion of Ukraine, Russia has been hit from all sides by sanctions and financial restrictions from major economic players around the world, both domestically in the EU and long-distance in the United States. These sanctions, coupled with the decision to cut off the Russian Central Bank from both the EU’s SWIFT banking system and all US financial institutions, has completely decimated the value of Russia’s national currency.
As of Monday, the ruble has shed an additional 30% of its valuation against the US dollar, which means the ruble is currently worth less than a single US cent. Russia has been raising its interest rates to unprecedented highs to keep costs down in the short term, but this will undoubtedly lead to heavy inflation in the very near future.
“It’s going to ripple through their economy really fast,” David Feldman, a professor of economics at William & Mary in Virginia, explained to CBS. “Anything that is imported is going to see the local cost in currency surge. The only way to stop it will be heavy subsidization.”
“The [ruble] has gone into a tailspin, and most Russian bonds, whether directly sanctioned or not, have seen prices drop to levels suggesting the significant risk of default,” analysts with TD Securities said in a research note.
Russian ruble is now worth less than 1 U.S. cent after SWIFT bank sanctionshttps://t.co/y8JqCvL3Kf
— TIME (@TIME) March 1, 2022
“With it now uncertain if Russia can even get their hands on their large stock of [foreign exchange] reserves (whatever the denomination), are sovereign bond holders going to get paid back?” Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer with Bleakley Advisory Group, said in a report to investors. “With the rubble down 19% today to a fresh record low against the dollar, good luck getting paid back if one holds a dollar denominated Russian bond.”
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