Russia Accelerates Ruble Devaluation, Biggest Drop in 3 Months

[Jam]

Is this how the race to the bottom is going to play out?

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...I&refer=europe

Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Russia’s central bank devalued the ruble by the most in more than three months as it seeks to stem the drain on foreign-exchange reserves used to defend the currency.
Bank Rossii allowed the ruble to drop 1.2 percent against the target basket of dollars and euros used to manage fluctuations, exceeding six previous depreciations since Nov. 11 of about 1 percent each. The ruble is 9.3 percent below the central bank’s target exchange rate, compared with 8.1 percent yesterday and 3.7 percent on Nov. 11, according to MDM Bank in Moscow. A central bank official confirmed the band was widened.
“We will continue to see this rather quickened pace of devaluation for the rest of this year,” said Evgeny Nadorshin, a senior economist at Trust Investment Bank in Moscow.“They’re proceeding with a stable, predictable devaluation so they don’t shock the economy and push people out of the national currency.”

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Re: Russia Accelerates Ruble Devaluation, Biggest Drop in 3 Months

This talk about devaluation in Russia is very interesting.

I have been following the $/ruble and Euro/ruble crosses very closely.

As I expected, the ruble has dropped dramatically against the euro - going from a previous 34-ish to the present 38.7 in a matter of a month.

The dollar, however, has gone from 27-ish to, well, 27-ish in the same time frame.

2 months ago, it was 26.26 rubles/$ and 35.4 rubles/euro

3 months: 25.5 & 36.63

In the midst of the summer ruble strength 6 months ago: 23.64, 36.69

And last of all, 1 year ago 24.7 & 35.6

Is the devaluation real, or is it Clinton/Rubin jawboning?