By Alexander Marrow - The Russian rouble strengthened sharply on Friday ahead of an interest rate decision by the central bank that could see the cost of borrowing rise again to help shoreBy Alexander Marrow
The central bank hiked by 350 basis points to 12% a month ago, responding to the rouble's tumble past 100 to the dollar, and most analysts polled by Reuters expect another increase on Friday. By 0823 GMT, the rouble was 1% stronger against the dollar at 96.39 and had gained 1% to trade at 102.84 versus the euro. It had firmed 0.9% against the yuan to 13.23.
"The cheap dollar has not yet fed into goods' prices, so it is quite logical to expect inflation growth," said Alor Broker's Alexei Antonov in a note."To fight it, the Bank of Russia is likely to raise the key rate by 1-2 percentage points today."