No grounds for ruble's weakening at end of 2026; will continue without sharp swings in 2027 - Sberbank financial director

MOSCOW. Oct 8 (Interfax) - The ruble exchange rate will remain near current levels until the end of 2026, and its weakening will continue in 2027 but without sharp fluctuations, the deputy board chairman and financial director of Sberbank Taras Skvortsov said.

"Our forecast is that we will roughly remain near the current exchange rate this year. The ruble has already weakened enough, and there seem to be no significant factors for it to continue [weakening] sharply, especially given the current oil prices," Skvortsov said at the Sber Investments forum.

"We see that the weakening of the ruble will continue next year, but without any radical jumps. It will be a few percent, explained in particular by both the change in the fiscal rule and the difference in inflation this year in Western countries and in Russia," he said.

Sberbank's clients have approximately the same expectations, he said.

One of the factors in favor of a stronger ruble exchange rate is the restriction on the import side amid more restrained lending due to tight regulation and the high key rate, Skvortsov said.

"The second factor in favor of the ruble is a very big one, which perhaps we do not yet fully assess correctly - this is the increase in taxes on foreign purchases, in the sense that today all sales of foreign goods on marketplaces will have to be subject to full VAT. Accordingly, this will sharply reduce the opportunities to purchase these goods," Skvortsov said.