By Andrey Ostroukh
MOSCOW--The Russian ruble weakened to new lows in early trading
on Friday, hit by a drop in oil prices after OPEC members rejected
calls for drastic action to cut their oil output.
OPEC members' decision to keep their production ceiling
unchanged sent Brent crude prices below $72 per barrel for the
first time since mid-2010, threatening to put more of a brake on
Russia's economic growth. The country receives around 50% of its
revenue from exporting oil and gas.
The ruble touched an all-time low of 49.90 versus the dollar in
the first minutes of trading on Moscow exchange, before recovering
slightly to 49.57. This takes the ruble's year-to-date depreciation
versus the greenback to 34%.
Against the euro, the ruble eased to 62.03 before recovering
slightly to 61.72 as of 0712 GMT.
The Russian central bank has let the ruble float freely against
the dollar euro since early November having previously intervened
on currency markets to stem its loss in value. The central bank has
said that it might intervene int the markets in future to prop up
the ruble if it deems it necessary for the sake of Russia's
financial stability.
Write to Andrey Ostroukh at andrey.ostroukh@wsj.com