Report: Treasury can become fin min currency operations agent

MOSCOW, Feb 16 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Federal Treasury can become an agent of the Finance Ministry in foreign currency operations, replacing the central bank in the role, newswire RBC reported on Thursday, citing sources who participated in the discussion.

“We are waiting for a political decision and a deadline by the Finance Ministry to fulfill it (the transfer of functions),” one of the sources said.

The central bank possibly wants to disassociate itself from operations influencing the ruble’s exchange rate, RBC reported, citing market participants.

The Finance Ministry said in January it will buy a 6.3 billion ruble equivalent of foreign currency daily from February 7 till March 6, spending the entire additional revenue from oil and gas sales planned for February, or 113.1 billion rubles.

(56.7719 rubles – U.S. $1)

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