Russian Ruble plunges to 7-Month Low

After months of resilience in the face of heavy Western sanctions, the Russian ruble finally gave up and slid to a seven-month low, amid falling crude oil prices and fear that the sanctions would hit country’s export revenues.

Brent oil, a global benchmark for Russia's main exports, fell 0.7% to US$75.6 per barrel, pushing Russian stock indices down.

Russian stocks were also hit, with the dollar-denominated RTS index falling 5.4%, a two-month low of 982.8 points.

But, as economists report, some future short-term support is expected to help strengthen the Russian currency once tax payments end at the end of the month and exporters start converting their revenues to rubles.