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Finance ministry to announce FX selling plan on Feb.3
Feb 2 (Reuters) – Russia’s finance ministry is expected to increase its sales of foreign currency for state reserves to about $1.1 billion in the coming month, a Reuters survey showed on Thursday.
The finance ministry will announce its buying plan for the period of Feb.7 to March 6 at 0900 GMT on Friday.
The median forecast from a survey of six analysts suggested Russia would buy 79.75 billion roubles ($1.14 billion) worth of foreign currency in regular purchases on the open market under its fiscal rule.
Individual forecasts ranged from 0 to 205 billion roubles.
In the previous period, between Jan. 13 and Feb.6, the ministry had planned to sell 54.5 billion roubles worth of foreign currency, which it carried out with Chinese yuan, link bio to compensate for lower oil and gas revenues.
The finance ministry last month said it was resuming operations to increase stability of domestic economic conditions and reduce the impact of energy market volatility on Russia’s economy and public finances.
Russia’s 2023 budget is based on a Urals blend price of around $70.1 a barrel, though Russia’s main blend is trading at below $50 a barrel.
Russia halted FX interventions last year as the West imposed sweeping sanctions against Moscow after it launched what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine, which included the freezing of about $300 billion in foreign exchange reserves.
In Russia, where the U.S.dollar was king for years after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the yuan, or renminbi, has become a major player.
Russia’s finance ministry cannot conduct transactions in dollars and euros, citing the Chinese yuan as the only alternative.($1 = 70.1000 roubles) (Reporting by Alexander Marrow. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
