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The
finance ministry said it would buy the equivalent of 235.3
billion roubles ($2.6 billion), or 11.2 billion roubles per day,
of foreign currency and gold from April 5 to May 7.
The central bank conducts forex interventions on the finance
ministry's behalf. Meanwhile, the central bank is also selling
forex to compensate for money spent from Russia's rainy-day
wealth fund in 2023.
As a result, the Russian state overall will remain a net forex
seller in April - just at a much lower volume than in the
previous month, with overall sales diving to 0.6 billion roubles
from 7.1 billion roubles a day.
In the March 7-April 4 period, the ministry had planned to buy
foreign currency worth 93.7 billion roubles, while analysts
surveyed by Reuters had predicted purchases totalling 117.5
billion roubles.
Under its own budget rule, Russia sells foreign currency from
its National Wealth Fund to make up for any shortfall in revenue
from oil and gas exports, or makes purchases in the event of a
surplus. The ministry said it was increasing its purchases in
part thanks to higher than expected income tax receipts.
Proceeds from oil and gas sales for Russia's federal budget rose
to 1.3 trillion roubles in March from 945.6 billion roubles in
February, ministry data showed.
In April, the ministry expects additional energy revenues for
the budget of 128.3 billion roubles above its current plan.
This year, the central bank's mirroring of finance ministry
operations, including deferred foreign currency purchases from
August to December 2023, is being adjusted by the volume of NWF
funds spent on financing the government's budget deficit for
2023 and on supporting companies.
The central bank deferred foreign currency purchases last August
to avoid aggravating pressure on the rouble, which tumbled past
100 to the dollar in August and October.
The ministry was selling Chinese yuan for the first half of 2023
as Western sanctions imposed over Russia's actions in Ukraine
hit energy revenues. It reverted to purchases in August as
commodity prices rose and energy revenues recovered.
($1 = 92.4050 roubles)
(Reporting by Darya Korsunskaya and Alexander Marrow; Editing by
Kevin Liffey and Hugh Lawson)
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