The currency is down about 20 percent against the dollar since January and is now at its lowest level since Russia’s 1998 debt default. Its performance this year is the worst of any major currency except Argentina’s peso.
It could fall farther, despite interventions by Russia’s central bank, which over the past few days has spent $1.75 billion to prop it up. The ruble remains under “permanent pressure” as investors flee the country and sanctions choke off access to foreign capital markets, Vladimir Evstifeev of Moscow’s Bank Zenit tells Bloomberg News.