The ruble fell sharply against the euro amid signals from the European Central Bank to tighten monetary policy

The dollar is rising moderately, while the euro accelerated sharply on the Moscow Exchange on the back of signals from the European Central Bank (ECB) regarding the impending tightening of monetary policy. The Russian national currency is also depreciating against the dual-currency basket.

As of 19:00 Moscow time, the US dollar exchange rate was 76.34 rubles. This is 30 kopecks higher than the closing level of the previous trades.

Euro at this point was worth 87.15 rubles. The single European currency thus rose in price by 1.15 rubles at once.

The value of the dual-currency basket increased by 68.3 kopecks to 81.2 rubles.

Interfax-CEA experts explain that the ruble is depreciating against the dollar and the euro in evening trading amid a decrease in investor interest in risk after meetings of the Bank of England and the ECB. Thus, the Bank of England expectedly decided to raise the base interest rate to 0.5% from 0.25%. The European Central Bank (ECB), in turn, left the base interest rate on loans at zero, the rate on deposits at minus 0.5%. The rate on margin loans was kept at 0.25%.

Later, the head of the ECB, Christine Lagarde, announced the readiness of the European regulator to adjust all instruments in order to stabilize inflation at 2%. This pushed the euro up against most world currencies, including the dollar and the ruble.

In an interview with Interfax, Alexei Kapitanov, an investment strategist at Inbank, noted that the decision of the British regulator could serve as an indicator of the beginning of a cycle of tightening monetary policy among the central banks of developed countries.