so that s reducing the amount of revenue coming in, reducing the hard currency coming in and at the same time the government has been spending a great deal on the wall and also become much more dependent on imports from areas like turkey and china but those regions are not particularly happy taking payment in roubles, so if they want to pay in roubles, so if they want to pay in roubles it s going to be a lot of money. there is a huge amount of foreign currency, so that s the big picture why the rouble has fallen. now the russian government is saying it s all the fault of the central bank. the central bank last year increased interest rates in the early days of the war and that helped arrest a decline in the value of the rouble back then, but since then, it has allowed interest rates to fall back from 20% to around 8%, increase them a little bit last month, but the government is saying it s time to end that policy, that loose monetary policy, and push out but the central bank doesn t fe
watching the statements coming out of russia because putin s economic advisor is saying one thing whereas central bank is saying another. just la it out central bank is saying another. just lay it out for central bank is saying another. just lay it out for us. well, everybody needs somebody to blame, don t they? first of all, looking at the decline in value of the rouble, to put that into some kind of context, if you go back to last august a year ago, a rouble, a dollar value 60 roubles but today it would buy you 101 roubles, so that s the magnitude of the decline in value. since the beginning of the year, it s about 25% and this is because the russian is under pressure. russia isn t selling as much or getting as much export revenue as it used to. it used to rely heavily on oil sales and gas sales but, gas sales to europe have declined quite dramatically, europe has been looking for other places to get its gas, and the price cap in the g7 nations on the price of russian oil,
gas workers in australia will vote on whether to strike threatening a surge in prices in europe and asia. and russia s rouble slumps to a 16 month low against the dollar, as the economy reels from western sanctions. and action also in ukraine of course. let s start in australia, where workers at the country s lng plants those that produce liquefied natural gas will decide this week if they ll go on strike over pay and employment rights. why is this important? european natural gas prices surged almost 40% last wednesday, when the threat of strike action was first announced. demand and reliance on lng has grown especially since the russian war in ukraine has made countries seek out alternative energy supplies,