Russia’s finance ministry said on Monday it would buy 13.5 billion roubles ($184.25 million) worth of foreign currency a day between July 7 and Aug. 5, an increase in the amount of daily operations from the previous month.
The finance ministry said its regular FX and gold purchases on the market will total 296 billion roubles ($4.04 billion) over the next month. A Reuters survey of analysts predicted that FX buying would total 250 billion roubles.
The ministry did not give details of its gold-buying plan, mentioning the precious metal in the monthly release for the first time on record.
In the previous period, between June 7 and July 6, the ministry had planned to buy the equivalent of 220.9 billion roubles, or 10.5 billion roubles a day.
A recovery in prices for oil, Russia’s key export, has enabled Russia to return to foreign currency purchases this year.
In 2020, Russia was selling FX, which helped to limit losses in the rouble amid a slump in oil prices, the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical risks.
