Russian finance ministry to channel record $8.3 bln to reserves in month ahead (updated)

Rainforest Resources

03/02/2022 09:32

(Adds details)
    MOSCOW, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Russia's finance ministry is to
channel a record $8.3 billion worth of gold and foreign currency
to state reserves in the month ahead, it said on Thursday, but
this should have no immediate impact on the rouble.
    Russia does not target a specific rouble rate but normally
buys FX on the local market on a daily basis under its fiscal
rule, designed to shield it from fluctuations in prices for
crude oil, its main export.
    But the central bank, which carries out FX purchases on
behalf of the finance ministry, decided to suspend these
operations on Jan. 24 to ease pressure on the rouble, battered
by geopolitical tensions between Moscow and the West.
    The finance ministry said it would channel 634.7 billion
roubles ($8.29 billion) between Feb. 7 and March 4 into buying
foreign currency and gold to replenish state reserves, up from
585.9 billion roubles in the previous month.
    A Reuters survey of analysts predicted that the finance
ministry would replenish reserves by 550 billion roubles.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2UC54C
    In daily terms, FX and gold buying would total 33.4 billion
roubles ($436 million), the ministry said, a decrease in the
amount of daily operations from the previous month.     
    In the preceding period, between Jan. 14 and Feb. 4, the
finance ministry had planned to buy $491 million a day.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nR4N2OP01W
    A recovery in prices for oil has enabled Russia to return to
foreign currency purchases in 2021 after it was selling FX in
2020, which helped to limit losses in the rouble amid a slump in
global commodity prices, the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical
risks.

($1 = 76.6075 roubles)

 (Reporting by Andrey Ostroukh; Editing by Alex Richardson and
Ed Osmond)
 ((andrey.ostroukh@thomsonreuters.com;))