Business
Ruble surges in 2025: Russian currency emerges as top performer against US dollar; why it’s a headache for its war economy – The Times of India
The Russian currency Ruble emerged as the top-performing major currency against the US dollar this year, surging 45% since January. This unexpected strength caught Russian officials off guard and poses challenges for the country’s war-affected economy. The currency is now trading around 78 per dollar, similar to levels before Russia’s Ukraine invasion, as reported by Economic Times.The surge comes from several factors. Russians are buying less foreign currency due to international sanctions. High interest rates have also made ruble investments more attractive to locals. The central bank kept rates very high from October last year until June this year, before reducing them by 5 points to 16 per cent.This strong performance has exceeded government expectations, which predicted an average rate of 91.2 per dollar for the year. The ruble has stayed strong despite lower oil prices and new sanctions from the US and Europe. This strength is actually causing problems by reducing the value of export earnings when converted to rubles.The Bank of Russia has been supporting the currency by selling foreign currency, particularly yuan and gold, from the National Wellbeing Fund. This is helping offset declining energy revenues, with oil and gas income dropping 22% in the first 11 months of 2023.The ruble’s impressive performance puts it among the world’s top five performing assets this year, alongside precious metals like platinum, silver, palladium, and gold. Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina sees this strength as helpful in fighting inflation, noting that its positive effects on prices haven’t yet peaked.
Business
LPG crisis: No respite for restaurants yet – The Times of India
MUMBAI/BENGALURU: The restaurant industry is struggling to run regular operations due to the meagre supplies of LPG cylinders . With the govt’s move to hike commercial LPG allocation to up to 70%, it will take some time before the measure actually translates into sustained supply, executives said. “Supply is still hugely limited and erratic. A feeling of uncertainty looms large,” said Anurag Katriar, founder at Indigo Hospitality. The key question is how quickly this revised allocation will translate into on-ground availability, said Pradeep Shetty, vice-president at Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI).A walk along Indiranagar’s 12th Main, known for its cluster of independent restaurants, reflects the strain. “It is all hand-to-mouth at this point,” said Nikhil Gupta, who runs brands including The Pizza Bakery and Paris Panini . The move doesn’t directly help the restaurant sector which is still getting 20%-30% of LPG supplies, said Sagar Daryani, co-founder & CEO at Wow! Momo Foods and president at National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI). State-wise, the supply situation varies with some such as Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan restricting allocation for restaurants, hurting the sector , Daryani said.
Business
Asda boss rejects profiteering claims as petrol price tops 150p
Motorists are facing higher fuel prices ahead of Easter break due to the conflict in the Middle East, the RAC says.
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Business
E-cheques coming soon? RBI unveils Payments Vision 2028, plans wider oversight of digital players – The Times of India
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday unveiled its ‘Payments Vision 2028’ document, outlining a roadmap that includes exploring electronic cheques, expanding regulatory oversight to digital platforms, and strengthening safeguards in the fast-growing payments ecosystem, PTI reported.The central bank said it will examine the introduction of e-cheques to combine the advantages of paper instruments with the speed and reliability of digital payments. “To leverage the unique benefits of paper-based instruments and the speed and reliability of electronic payments, and cater to new business use cases, the introduction of electronic cheques in India shall be explored,” the RBI said.Alongside, the RBI is considering widening the regulatory ambit to include entities such as e-commerce marketplaces and centralised platforms that play a growing role in facilitating digital transactions.“In addition, e-commerce marketplaces and centralized platforms have been assuming significant responsibilities that could have implications on the orderly functioning of the payments ecosystem. These aspects shall be examined in detail and, if required, the scope of direct regulations shall be extended to cover such entities,” the document said.The vision document also proposes allowing users to enable or disable transactions across digital payment modes, similar to controls available for card transactions.To address fraud risks, the RBI is exploring a “shared responsibility framework” under which both the issuing bank and the beneficiary bank would share liability in cases of unauthorised digital transactions.The central bank also plans to review cheque design and security features, introduce a Domestic Legal Entity Identifier (DLEI) framework for better transaction traceability, and bring in a Cyber Key Risk Indicators (KRI) framework for non-bank payment system operators.Other initiatives include exploring white-label solutions in the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS), developing interoperability in the Trade Receivables e-Discounting System (TReDS), and introducing a ‘Payments Switching Service’ to ease customer migration across platforms.The RBI said it will also review the cross-border payments ecosystem to improve efficiency and streamline authorisation processes, alongside publishing periodic reports on global and domestic payment trends.Additionally, the central bank aims to enhance access to payment data and reimagine the card payments ecosystem by promoting secure tokenisation, improved transparency in pricing, and greater choice for users and merchants.
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