Cbank to buy no foreign currency for fin min from Thu till end-Sep

MOSCOW, Aug 23 (PRIME) -- Russia’s central bank will not buy foreign currency for the Finance Ministry from Thursday until the end of September, the regulator said in a statement.

“The Bank of Russia has decided to perform no foreign currency purchases on the domestic market under the budget rule mechanism from August 23, 2018 until the end of September 2018. The decision is aimed at raising predictability of the monetary authorities’ actions and reducing volatility of the financial market,” the statement read.

In February 2017, the ministry entered the currency market to minimize dependence of the ruble on oil prices. The ministry wanted to use additional oil and gas revenue of the budget and assured the influence on the ruble quotations would be minimal. The transactions were made by the central bank.

The central bank said that the decision to resume the purchases will be made basing on September’s market conditions.

It also said that it is closely monitoring the situation on the financial market and has enough tools to prevent any threats to the financial stability.

The ruble has stopped falling against the U.S. dollar and the euro on the back of the statement. Earlier in the day, the ruble hit a 69 ruble per U.S. dollar mark for the first time since April 2016.

End