Russia's Finance Ministry to allocate 18.12 bln rubles per day as of Oct 6 to purchase currency/gold under fiscal rule

MOSCOW. Oct 4 (Interfax) - Russia's Finance Ministry plans to allocate funds totaling 398.72 billion rubles from October 6 to November 7 in order to purchase foreign currency/gold as per the fiscal rule, with the daily volume to be equivalent to 18.12 billion rubles, the ministry said in a statement.

The Finance Ministry on August 7 moved to purchases as part of the fiscal rule for the first time since February last year. The volume of purchases at the time was set at the equivalent of 1.8 billion rubles per day, and the overall volume was 40.5 billion rubles as on September 6. The volume of daily purchases was increased seven-fold as of September 7, and the total volume of funds allocated was set at 276.16 billion rubles, or 13.15 billion rubles per day, in the period until October 5.

The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) is not mirroring these operations on the market from August 10 until the end of 2023. The regulator noted that it has taken the decision in order to reduce volatility on the financial markets. There could be deferred purchases in 2024 and subsequent years. The CBR will decide on these operations once the regulator has resumed mirroring regular purchases as part of the fiscal rule.

The Finance Ministry expects additional oil and gas revenues to the federal budget to total 513.48 billion rubles in October. The deviation of actually received oil and gas revenues was minus 114.76 billion rubles in September from the expected monthly volume of oil and gas revenues.