Ruble Falls Most in 10 Years This Week After Five Devaluations

The ruble had its biggest weekly decline against the dollar in a decade as Russia’s central bank quickened the pace of devaluations to staunch the erosion of currency reserves.

The ruble fell as low as 32.6675 per dollar today, the weakest since early 1998, before the government defaulted on $40 billion of debt. The ruble has fallen 5.4 percent in the six-day week since official trading began after Russia’s Christmas holidays, the biggest decline since March 1999.