CBR attributes ruble correction to commodity market downturn - dept head

ST. PETERSBURG. July 3 (Interfax) - The recent correction of the ruble's exchange rate after its appreciation is due to the situation on commodity markets, the director of the monetary policy department at the Central Bank of Russia (CBR), Andrei Gangan said.

"The correction in the exchange rate that is being seen now is, in my view, exclusively related to the correction on commodity markets," Gangan said on RBC radio.

"If you look at the exchange rate, where it was a year ago, it was approximately at current levels. Obviously, there are certain fluctuations, which is natural for a floating exchange rate, particularly when our trade conditions change. I mean that in the past three to four months we've had very volatile prices on commodity markets, global commodity markets. In fact, all this fluctuation of the past two to three months is related exclusively and primarily, in my view, to price fluctuations. This doesn't just refer to oil prices, other Russian export commodities also rose," Gangan said.

The ruble's exchange rate has been fluctuating in a wide band of 75-85 rubles per U.S. dollar for the past 18 months, he said.

"If we look at the fluctuations of currency pairs in the world in general, they have actually risen everywhere. And in fact, what we're now seeing in the dynamic of the ruble's exchange rate is also true for many emerging market currencies. So in this sense we are now in a kind of general global trend," Gangan said.