Russian Finance Ministry to cut forex, gold sales to 0.1 bln rubles per day from Nov 10

MOSCOW. Nov 6 (Interfax) - The Russian Finance Ministry plans to sell 2.7 billion rubles of foreign currency and gold under fiscal rule between November 10 and December 4, with daily transactions equivalent to 0.1 billion rubles, the ministry said in a statement.

Forex and gold sales by the ministry between October 7 and November 7 amount to 13.9 billion rubles and 0.6 billion rubles per day. A month earlier, from September 5, daily sales amounted to 1.4 billion rubles per day.

The Finance Ministry predicts that the federal budget will have lost oil and gas revenue of 48 billion rubles in November. In October, actual oil and gas revenue deviated from the expected amount by 45.3 billion rubles. The ministry said in the statement that the main reason for this had been the positive deviation of the damper component due to exchange prices for motor fuel exceeding their set values by more than the permitted amount. This was a one-off effect taking into account planned changes to legislation, which will extend to cover legal relations arising in the reporting period, from September 1, 2025, and this will require the compensated amounts to be recalculated.

The new data published by the Finance Ministry make it possible to assess the volume of transactions conducted by the Central Bank of Russia on the forex market.

In the second half of 2025, the CBR is purchasing and selling foreign currency based on the volume of transactions under fiscal rule announced by the Finance Ministry adjusted for sales of 8.94 billion rubles per day. In the first half, these transactions were adjusted for a sales volume of 8.86 billion rubles per day.

Taking into account the transaction amounts announced by the Finance Ministry, the CBR will therefore sell 9.04 billion rubles of currency per day between November 10 and December 4, 2025. From October 7 to November 7, it is selling 9.54 billion rubles per day.

The Finance Ministry resumed forex and gold sales in April after an extended period of purchasing. It went back to purchasing in May, for two months, and began selling again in July.