World Wire
RUBLE EXCHANGE RATE</br></br>The international exchange rate for the Soviet ruble should be made consistent with its real buying power starting July 1, Soviet Finance Minister Valentin Pavlov said in an interview with the government newspaper Izvestia.</br></br>Mr. Pavlov said the ruble exchange rate should be changed to reflect its real value before new wholesale prices are introduced in 1991. Without saying what the changed rate should be, he said a realistic ruble rate would help the government to make up losses in revenues caused by production shortfalls.</br></br>"The federal budget failed to receive three billion rubles {$4.9 billion} over the past four months," he said. "If this tendency continues, the losses will have reached 10 to 12 billion rubles by the end of the year."</br></br>Last year, the Finance Ministry established a special ruble rate for tourists, selling six rubles for one dollar. The move was an effort to slow down the thriving black market for dollars.