Moody's offers to devalue a ruble by 20%

Moody's International Rating Agency today advised the Russian government to conduct a ruble devaluation, lowering the national currency 20% to the dollar. This opinion was expressed by the leading analyst of the agency Jonathan Schiffer.

The agency predicts that Russia will retain its sovereign credit rating in the near future: “Of course, it will not grow to A3, but will not fall to the BAA2,” Schiffer believes. “There are things that are really worth worrying about. For example, potential debts of companies that may become the debts of the Russian government. We are talking about the assignment of debt obligations to the shoulders of companies such as Gazprom and "Sberbank".

Schiffer also added that Russia could avoid the worst script in case of weakening the ruble rate by 20% compared to the current one.

The head of the analytical department of the Alemar IFC Vasily Konuzin told Bfm.ru that "the currencies of other countries included in the BRIC group did not demonstrate such a significant fortification as the ruble, and to restore the Russian economy, become stronger than competitors and stimulate GDP growth, it is necessary to restore exports."

According to the expert, the weakening of the ruble will contribute to the growth of inflation and hit the wallets of Russians, since the process of import substitution is at a very slow pace. However, the situation will be better than during the period of the so-called "soft devaluation" (November-February), when the ruble fell to the dollar by 50%. "The weakening of the ruble then led to an increase in prices, but a sharp reduction in demand from the population saved from the hyperskachka," the expert said.

Russian officials have repeatedly stated that they do not plan to devalue the ruble. So, in September, the First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Igor Shuvalov said that the second wave of ruble devaluation is not expected, since "there are no prerequisites for such processes."

Prior to this, in August, the Minister of Finance Alexei Kudrin claimed that the ruble devaluation would not be until oil prices are significantly launching.

At the same time, Kudrin emphasized that he against various artificial operations with the ruble, including his intentional devaluation.