Russian ruble

Greece was the 6th most popular tourism destination in Russian travel platform Yandex in January 2017. Greece had a 4.9% of the total reach share, with Thailand (12.2%), Turkey (6.2%), India-Goa (6%), Vietnam (5.7%), Egypt (5.2%) occupying the top 5 spots.

Lending in local currencies should be considered as an opportunity to enhance trade relations with countries like Russia and China, head of a Turkish banking watchdog said on Dec. 21.

Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım will visit Russia on Dec. 5-7, where he will discuss Ankara's  first steps to ensure that trade with China, Russia and Iran is conducted in local currency, along with several other key issues.

All accommodation expenses and other expenditures by the Turkish delegation will be paid for in Russian rubles, the Prime Ministry said in a statement yesterday. 

The parity between the U.S. dollar and Turkish Lira eased slightly on Oct. 19, as expectations about a fresh rate cut by the Turkish Central Bank decreased. 

Russia's ruble and Turkey's lira lead a gang of top emerging market currencies to six-month highs on April 29 as signals this week that U.S. interest rates are likely to stay ultra-low cemented a third month of losses for the dollar. 

Last year was regarded as a new milestone after the 2008-2009 crisis. The expansionary monetary policy adopted to overcome the crisis was to end with the U.S. Central Bank, the Fed, hiking rates, supposedly ushering in a new era.

The ruble hit a historic low on Jan. 20 as the dollar climbed past the 80.1 rubles level for the first time, exceeding the levels seen during the shock plunge of the Russian currency in December 2014.

The weighted average of the Kazakh tenge fell to a fresh all-time low of 356.88 per dollar on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange on Jan. 11 from 351.88 on the previous trading day.

The Secretary of Finance of the Russian Federation has called on Greece to partake in the new development bank created by the so-called BRICs countries — China, Russia, Brazil, India and South Africa.

Standard and Poor's stripped Russia of its investment-grade rating on Jan. 26, cutting it to "junk" status with a warning of weak growth.

"The downgrade reflects our view that Russia's monetary policy flexibility has become more limited and its economic growth prospects have weakened," the ratings agency said in a statement announcing the one-notch cut to a 'BB+' rating.