When you are thinking about sending money abroad, an international money transfer provider is a great option. They can help you with the whole process, provide useful online tools and most importantly bank-beating exchange rates and low or zero fees.
This is the current AUD-RUB mid-market exchange rate. The Total Cost of each foreign transfer in the above table is calculated as the sum of all fees and the exchange rate margin, which is the difference between the provider's exchange rate and the mid-market AUD-RUB exchange rate.
Whenever you are interested in an exchange rate you are actually interested in two currencies due to the fact that the value of a currency must always be quoted in comparison to a second currency.
So it follows that if you are determining the best time to transact, in this case the AUD vs RUB, you should pay attention to both Australian Dollar and Russian Ruble news and forecasts.
17-January-19: The Australian dollar recovered strongly following a "flash crash" in early January which saw it briefly trade at a 10-year low of 67.4 US cents.
By the time of this report, AUD/USD was back at 72 cents and roughly in line with December’s median exchange rate. The Aussie was similarly strong against other major currencies following its mini crash.
Several months ago, most analysts agreed that the Aussie was heading higher in 2019, but things have changed. In recent months, investors have become increasingly certain that no increase to Australian interest rates will be seen until 2020; there is, in fact, now a 25 percent chance of an RBA cut, per derivatives pricing. Inaction on interest rates will force capital away from Australia and towards countries where rates are higher or are expected to increase.
One senior researcher at BNP Paribas said in January that the Australian dollar would “get absolutely crucified and could suffer a 25-30 percent [long-term] fall.”
In opposition to that view, at least relative to the US dollar, was a CIBC analyst, who said that at current levels the Aussie was “very undervalued” and was his “best bet” for 2019. The analyst’s view was based upon there being a positive resolution to the US-China trade spat. The Aussie could be worth as much as 78 US cents in the second half of 2019, the analyst said.
31-December-18: 2018 was a year of steady depreciation for the ruble. As the end of December approached, markets quoted 69.35 rubles to the dollar and 79.5 rubles to the euro, marking respective depreciation of 17 percent and 12 percent on the year.
Analysts said that ruble weakness in 2018 had been driven by central bank buying of foreign currencies for the purposes of bolstering Russia’s FX reserves – an act that necessitates selling large amounts of rubles, which weighs on valuations. Equally, US sanctions on Russia played a part, as did a mid-year emerging market currency crisis and an end-of-year slump in the price of Russia’s largest export, oil. Crude products lost 40 percent of their value between early October and year-end.
In December, Goldman Sachs predicted a strong energy market rebound in 2019. If realised, this would underpin the ruble.
TradingEconomics.com were predicting a slightly stronger ruble in 2019; its 2019 year-end forecast for USD/RUB was 68.0.
