The ruble retreated to the weakest level in almost a month as oil, Russia’s chief export earner, headed for a two-week low and investors awaited a speech from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. Russia’s currency depreciated 0.3 percent against the dollar to 32.2675 at 12:37 p.m. in Moscow, the weakest since Aug. 3. The ruble slipped 0.4 percent versus the euro to 40.4932 and slid 0.4 percent against the central bank’s currency basket. Crude oil fell 0.2 percent to $95.31 in New York, the lowest on a closing basis since Aug. 15 and declining 1.8 percent in in the past five days. The ruble is likely to remain relatively weak until the end of the week, as investors might take a cautious approach ahead of Bernanke’s Jackson Hole address tomorrow, Moscow-based VTB Capital said in an e-mailed research note today. “Oil has been weaker over the past few days which is likely to be one of the factors impacting the ruble,� Michael Workman, the head of fixed income at Otkritie Capital in Moscow, said in an e-mail. Investors increased bets on the ruble weakening against the dollar, with non-deliverable forwards showing the currency at 32.7572 in three months versus 32.6615 yesterday. The extra yield investors demand to own Russia’s dollar bonds over U.S. Treasuries remained unchanged to 222, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s EMBI Global Index. An index of five- year government bond yields compiled by Micex rose more than 6 basis points to 7.73 percent, data compiled by Bloomberg show. To contact the reporter on this story: Lyubov Pronina in Moscow at lpronina@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gavin Serkin at gserkin@bloomberg.net

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