Russian rouble down as dollar rises, oil prices fall
MOSCOW, Oct 18 (Reuters) - The Russian rouble weakened onThursday, under pressure from a stronger dollar and lower oilprices.
The dollar gained against its major peers after minutes ofthe Federal Reserve's September meeting signalled that interestrates will rise further this year.
At 0730 GMT, the rouble was 0.35 percent weaker against thedollar at 65.73 and had lost 0.38 percent totrade at 75.58 versus the euro.
The rouble was also under pressure on Wednesday after ashooting at a college in Crimea, when 20 people were killed anddozens injured, said Andrey Kochetkov, an analyst with OtkritieBroker .
Falling prices for crude oil, Russia's main export, alsoundermined the rouble. Brent crude was down 0.51 percentat $79.64 a barrel.
Analysts were also watching Russian economic indicators. Theeconomy grew 1.3 percent in the third quarter year-on-year, downfrom 1.9 percent in the second quarter, the economy ministrysaid on Wednesday. Some analysts said second-quarter growth waspartly driven by the World Cup, which Russia hosted.
At the same time, growth in Russian retail sales slowed to2.2 percent in September year-on-year after rising 2.8 percentin August .
"While neutral for monetary policy, which has to remainmoderately hawkish because of the heightened inflationary risks,this weakening consumer activity amid declining approval ratesfor the country's political leadership, might become a challengeto the conservative budget policy implemented so far," ING saidin a note.
Russian stock indexes were down.
The dollar-denominated RTS index was down 0.77percent to 1,153.86 points. The rouble-based MOEX Russian index was 0.15 percent lower at 2,407.3 points.
For Russian equities guide see For Russian treasury bonds see (Reporting by Polina Nikolskaya and Katya Golubkova, editing byLarry King)
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