The U.S. dollar is at an all-time high against the ruble, but Russia's high inflation has left the American currency with far less buying power over the past 18 months, Interfax reported.


The Russian currency fell to a record low Monday, trading at 2,052 rubles to the dollar on the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange. Government officials have predicted it will fall to about 3,000 by the end of the year.


But Interfax, citing the Russian Statistics Committee, said the dollar's purchasing power was less than one-third of December 1992 levels.


Russian domestic prices have risen by a factor of 16 since then, while the dollar-to-ruble rate increased only by 4.7 times over the period, Interfax said.


The dollar lost much of its buying power last year when inflation was running around 20 percent a month and the Central Bank was spending huge sums to prop up the ruble rate.


This year inflation has been coming down. It slowed down to just 4.8 percent for the month of June -- the lowest monthly rate since President Boris Yeltsin's government began market reforms at the beginning of 1992.


The Central Bank also has changed its policy, letting the ruble fall to keep pace with the inflation rate, and intervening only to make its decline steady.


Former reform chief Yegor Gaidar on Saturday predicted an upturn in inflation.


"This is the lowest level we can foresee, provided the population does not change its monetary behavior significantly, which would be too much to expect," Interfax quoted Gaidar as saying.


The government has promised monthly inflation of 7 percent by the end of the year, falling to 2 or 3 percent by the end of next year.


(AP, Reuters)