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RUSSIA'S ECONOMY

Russia’s Finance Ministry to purchase foreign exchange worth $2.1 bln

Daily purchases of foreign exchange will total $99 mln in equivalent

MOSCOW, November 3. /TASS/. Russia’s Finance Ministry will purchase foreign exchange in the amount of 122.8 bln rubles ($2.1 bln) of extra oil revenues in the period between November 8 and December 6, 2017, the ministry said Friday. Extra oil revenues are expected to reach 125.8 bln rubles in October.

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"The total amount of funds allocated on foreign exchange purchases on the domestic forex market equals 122.8 bln rubles in the period between November 8 and December 6, 2017. Accordingly, daily purchases of foreign exchange will total 5.8 bln rubles ($99 mln) in equivalent," the report said.

In October 2017, the deviation of oil and gas revenues from the monthly estimate made in September was minus 3 bln rubles ($51 mln), the ministry said.

The Central Bank purchases foreign exchange at the Moscow Stock Exchange evenly during the trading day at the request of the Finance Ministry, after which the currency is transferred to the accounts of the Federal Treasury in the Bank of Russia.

As reported earlier, the Federal Treasury may begin foreign exchange purchases for current expenditures of the Finance Ministry’s budget using additional revenues from oil exports starting January 2018.

Head of the Treasury Roman Artyukhin said earlier that the mechanism assumes that the Treasury independently and directly enters the Moscow Stock Exchange for currency purchases. At the moment, the Treasury is preparing a roadmap for developing an algorithm for currency purchases directly on the exchange.

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