OREANDA-NEWS The dollar and euro exchange rates from the Bank of Russia against the background of the continuing weakening of the ruble on March 20 reached their maximum since September last year. The data is published on the regulator's website.

The dollar rose to 84.84 rubles, and the euro to 96.92 rubles. The day before, they were 1.7 and almost two rubles cheaper. The yuan exchange rate reached 12.38 rubles, the highest since February 19 last year.

On March 19, the dollar overcame the 87 rubles mark in the Forex market, while the euro rose above one hundred rubles. Since the beginning of March, the Russian currency has already weakened by 10 percent.

Dmitry Golubovsky, an analyst at financial markets, believes that one of the reasons for the weakening of the national currency was the budget deficit. The lower the exchange rate, the more opportunities there are to fill it, although this situation creates inflationary risks due to higher import prices.

In addition, experts cite a drop in oil and gas revenues as the reasons for this dynamic (the March result will manifest itself with a lag of a couple of months) and the suspension of currency sales by the Ministry of Finance in connection with the upcoming revision of the budget rule. The expected reduction in the Central Bank's key rate is also putting pressure on the ruble.