MOSCOW, January 25. /TASS/. Russian Finance Ministry will start buying and selling foreign exchange on the domestic forex market since February 2017, the ministry has announced on Wednesday.

"The amount of foreign currency sale and purchase operations will depend on the amount of oil and gas revenues of the federal budget. As long as the actual Urals oil price is above $40 per barrel, Russian Finance Ministry will perform forex buying operations in the amount of additional oil and gas revenues, the ministry said. 

Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry will sell foreign exchange in the amount of deficient oil and gas revenues in case of Urals oil prices drop. The cumulative amount of forex sale operations cannot be higher than the cumulative total of forex buying operations. Such operations on the forex market will be generally neutral for the money market, the Ministry said.

The decision was made for the purpose of increasing stability and predictability of domestic economic environment and mitigating the impact of varying energy resources market situation on the Russian economy.