Russia letter, week beginning March 14
Oil increase to diminish
Figures on Russian industrial production, Russia鈥檚 Central Bank interest rate decision, and unemployment and retail sales data for February will be the key announcements this week.
Many Russian industrial experts believe that the highly anticipated meeting between OPEC and other major oil producing countries is likely to be postponed due to the level of disagreement between these countries.
The price of Brent crude oil has fallen to the $40 per barrel mark at the beginning of this week. Many experts concur that the price of oil will be corrected at the level of $38 per barrel by the end of this week.
Consequently, the Russian rouble opened the week with a slight decrease and settled at 70.15 against the dollar.
Interest rate to be remain unchanged by Central Bank
Analysts expect that the Russian Central Bank鈥檚 key rate level of 11 percent will remain unchanged after Friday鈥檚 meeting.
Meanwhile, Deputy Head of Russian Central Bank, Mihail Suhov, said that revenues of the Russian banking system are on the increase.
Highlighting that net income of Russian banks during the period of January to February have increased to $1.2 billion, Suhov said that this figure could increase to $1.5 billion by the end of the first quarter of 2016.
Visit of Russian Energy Minister to Iran
Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak鈥檚 visit to Iran is another important event of the week.
According to Russian news agencies, Russia and Iran agreed on building a thermal power plant in Iran with a 1,400 megawatt capacity. The two countries are also in discussions for connecting their power grids. Russia is certainly considering Iran a significant partner in its current dire economic situation.
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