Russia to buy 6.3 bln rbl of foreign currency daily Feb 7–Mar 6

MOSCOW, Feb 3 (PRIME) -- The Russian Finance Ministry will purchase 6.3 billion rubles worth of foreign currency daily from the market from February 7 till March 6, the ministry said in a statement on Friday.

The ruble shrugged off the news. The national currency fell 4 kopecks against the U.S. dollar to 59.46 and grew 5 kopecks against the euro to 63.9 as of 12:06 p.m., Moscow time.

“The deviation of the oil and gas revenue of the federal budget from the monthly assessment corresponding to the federal budget law for 2017–2019 is estimated at 113.1 billion rubles in February 2017. The funds of the indicated amount will be allocated on the purchase of foreign currency on the domestic currency market from February 7 to March 6, 2017. Correspondingly, the daily amount of foreign currency purchases will stand at 6.3 billion in ruble equivalent,” the ministry said.

In U.S. dollars, it will stand at about U.S. $100 million.

The central bank will purchase foreign currency each day during the indicated term, evenly through the day, at trading sessions organized by the Moscow Exchange, the ministry said.

Earlier in January, President Vladimir Putin supported a government idea to spend any windfall energy revenue to replenish the Reserve Fund and the National Wealth Fund in 2017. The revenue will be considered windfall if the oil price exceeds $40 per barrel, the official forecast.

(59.9858 rubles – U.S. $1)

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