The ruble weakened to 114 against the greenback earliest this week — hitting its lowest level since March 2022, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine.

A recent slump in the ruble is ramping up pressure on the Bank of Russia to hike its key rate — potentially by the most since the start of the war on Ukraine.

In response, the Bank of Russia has been raising interest rates to record highs to curb inflation. The bank has said it is prepared to hike the cost of borrowing further - now at 21% - to whatever rate is necessary to cool inflation and bring it back to the 4% target level, the report said.