Hedging foreign exchange risk in Belarus: Selected issues
In 2015, Belarus made the very important strategic decision of moving towards a floating exchange-rate regime. This was a right and long overdue decision; at the same time, it gave automatically rise to a number of challenges. One of these challenges is the issue of increased day-to-day volatility of the exchange rate, which has an impact on many companies in the real and financial sector of the economy in the spheres of trade and investment. During 2015-2016, the daily percentage change of the Belarussian Ruble against the Euro sometimes amounted to around 6%, to the Russian Ruble – 4-5%, and to the USD – 2-3%. Markets to deal with this volatility, where such risks are transferred to other participants who are willing to carry them are largely absent at the moment, and are in urgent need for development.