Cbank sells record 23 bln rbl foreign currency on market on Thu

MOSCOW, Apr 24 (PRIME) -- Russia’s central bank sold a record of 23 billion rubles of foreign currency on the domestic market with settlement on Thursday, according to documents of the regulator seen by PRIME on Friday.

On March 9, the regulator decided to suspend purchases of foreign currency under the budget rule for 30 days in order to raise predictability of activities of monetary authorities and to reduce the volatility of financial markets in the conditions of significant global oil price changes.

On March 10, the authority decided to start preemptive sales of foreign currency in order to support the financial stability, as the Finance Ministry would be able to start selling foreign currency from the National Wealth Fund only in April.

The central bank also started selling additional currency from the National Wealth Fund to close the Sberbank sale deal on March 19. The sales happen if the price of Urals oil is below U.S. $25 per barrel.

(75.1290 rubles – U.S. $1)

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