While the US dollar appreciated against a basket of identified currencies around the world, the Russian ruble gained 4.5% against the greenback last week.
In the first week of September, Russia said China would pay for Russian gas in rubles and yuan. In addition, Switzerland imports Russian gold at an unprecedented level since April 2020.
According to Bitcoin.com, in the week up to September 25, the USD index (DXY) soared to a new high, severely affecting a large number of identifying currencies around the world. For example, the European Union's euro hit a 20-year low against the US dollar at the 1-uro exchange rate to 0.973 USD on September 23.
Currently, the euro is even lower at 0.9690 USD and down 2.82% compared to the greenback in the past 30 days. 30-day statistics showed the Yen fell 4.72%, the British pound fell 8.17% and the Canadian dollar lost 4.78%. The Chinese yuan broke the 7:1 exchange rate against the USD for the first time in two years.
However, the Russian ruble has had better recovery this year and has started to increase points a month after the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The ruble hit a seven-year high against the dollar at the end of June, and economists said at the time, do not ignore the rubles exchange rate.
On September 23, while the US dollar rose to a new high against various currencies around the world, the ruble rose 4.5% against the US dollar. The ruble has done this while the DXY broke its 20-year high following the recent rate hike by the US Federal Reserve. The ruble increased after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he would use "all available means" to win the war with Ukraine.
Analysts said that China's payment for Russian gas in rubles and yuan, Switzerland's purchase of 5.7 tons of Russian gold in August and the withdrawal of rubles by the Russian people have pushed the ruble higher.
In early September, Russian oil and gas giant Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller told reporters that China's payment in rubles and yuan instead of USD was "both sides' benefit".
In addition, the Swiss Federal Customs Service revealed that Switzerland imported 5.7 tons of Russian gold reserves in August, worth about 324 million USD. Switzerland has not bought such a large amount of gold in more than two years.
Swiss Customs said that Russian gold originated from the UK and stressed that there were no financial sanctions for violations.
Although the ruble exchange rate against the USD decreased rapidly, it was still at 56.87 rubles to exchange 1 USD on September 25. Meanwhile, 30-day statistics show that the euro is falling 2.82% against the USD, while the ruble increased 4.32% this month.
Investing.com expert Geoffrey Smith said the ruble against the USD also stemmed from the fact that Russia withdrew a large amount of money from savings accounts. However, he noted that the ruble withdrawal on September 23 was almost not as large as the number of withdrawals recorded in February. Smith said that increased demand for rubles has led to a tightening of the interbank ruble exchange rate, pushing the currency up in the market.
