Ministry to sell 203.7 bln rbl foreign currency on Friday–July 7

MOSCOW, Jun 3 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Finance Ministry will sell 203.7 billion rubles of foreign currency on the open market under the budget rule from Friday through July 7, or 10.2 billion rubles a day, the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

Budget shortfall revenue from oil and gas sales due to the difference between the baseline price and the actual oil price is expected at 145.5 billion rubles in June.

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.

(68.9831 rubles – U.S. $1)

End