Rouble Trouble Continues; Apple Temporarily Stops Online Sales in Russia

With the Rouble trouble going on for the past several months, Apple was left with no other option but to temporarily stop selling its products to Russia online. This is for the reason that the tech giant is having a hard time setting fixed prices on them.

The Rouble has dropped in worth 20 per cent for the past week, even though the treasury has decided to increase interest rates to 6.5 per cent to 17%. Apple had already attempted to resolve the falling ruble by boosting the price of the iPhone 6 by 25% last month, from 31,900 rubles to 39,900 rubles for the 16GB model.

The rouble has recently reached its all-time low, where a dollar was worth 79 Roubles. It went up again at 71 Roubles per dollar a few hours later. What caused Russia’s economic trouble was its action towards Ukraine. This puts some of the economists into fear of the consequences that the US might have over Russia's support of the separatist activity in its neighboring nation.

Since the value of the rouble has greatly weakened, this means that Apple products being sold to Russia become cheaper compared to those in other European countries. This leaves the company out of pocket as well as bold importers putting the iPhone and iPad on bargain sales.

Apple is closely monitoring different currencies aside from the Russian Rouble with the help of Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri. They told the analysts on Oct. 20 that while the strengthening U.S. dollar had little effect on the company’s results during the quarter that ended Sept. 27, it’s “becoming a significant headwind” in the current period.

To when will Apple resume its sales operation online in Russia? That is yet to be known, but it seems that the country now has only but a limited stock of iPhones and iPads sold in electronics stores unless and until the value of its Rouble comes out of trouble.