Weekly Forex Review (01/30/2023-02/03/2023)

Despite some negative external factors, the tenge strengthened against the ruble and the dollar last week. The Dollar Index declined after the US Federal Reserve decided to raise the rate by 25 bps. However, the Dollar Index closed at 102.9 level by the end of the week due to strong labour market statistics.

The price of oil also fell from 86.7 to 79.9 dollars per barrel. The increase in the rates of the world’s leading Central Banks with the weakening of experts’ optimism on the resumption of demand for energy resources from China, strongly influenced the decline in prices during the week. Data on energy reserves in the United States were released at the end of the week: most experts expected a decrease in oil reserves by 1 million barrels, but commercial oil reserves in the United States increased by 4.14 million to 452.69 million barrels last week. And this has lowered oil prices to $79.9 per barrel.

The ruble against the US dollar strengthened by the end of the week due to the statement of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation on the sale of foreign currency in the amount of 160.2 billion rubles, with a daily sales volume of 8.9 billion rubles. The dynamics of the exchange rate will depend on the following factors next week: the introduction of a price cap for petroleum products exported from Russia to the EU, the recovery of energy demand from China and many internal factors that most influenced the exchange rate last week.