OREANDA-NEWS. Sberbank Investment Research held a press briefing with its FX & Rates Chief Strategist, Tom Levinson. The main topic was the situation on global FX markets, the yuan's changing exchange rate and the dynamics of the Russian ruble.

Tom Levinson started off by talking about events on the Russian foreign exchange market and analysis of the behavior of other developing countries during various crises, pointing out that a 50% devaluation is typical in these situations (Mexican peso in 1994; Thai baht, Indonesian rupiah, and Korean won in 1997; Russian ruble and Brazilian real in1998; Turkish lira in 2000).

Currently fuelling the concerns of players on global currency markets, according to Tom Levinson, is the yuan, which the Bank of China devalued by 3% last week. Tom suggested that China could take such a step to establish the yuan as a global currency in the long term.

According to SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications), the renminbi is increasingly used for global settlements (it accounted for 2.1% [a fifth by frequency of use] of the total volume of payments as of June 2015, compared to 1.6% one year ago).

During the event key interest rates were also discussed; the US Federal Reserve is expected to raise the key rate at its September 17 meeting, which will lead to the strengthening of the US dollar against other currencies including the ruble. As for a Bank of Russia interest rate decision, Tom believes that the Russian central bank will leave the rate unchanged at its meeting on September 11, however another reduction before the end of the year cannot be ruled out.

At the end of the press briefing Tom Levinson emphasised that monetary authorities should seek to stabilize the ruble exchange rate since stability plays an invaluable role in corporate and investment decisions.