Russia will start buying foreign currency and gold as a recovery in energy revenue brought it above the target set in the budget.
The Finance Ministry said Thursday it will purchase 40.5 billion rubles ($433 million) during the Aug. 7-Sept. 6 period under a budgetary mechanism designed to insulate the economy from the volatility of commodity markets.
Since purchases were halted in late January 2022, followed by the program’s suspension after the invasion of Ukraine the following month, the Finance Ministry has only sold foreign currency this year as part of the revamped fiscal mechanism.
With the bulk of its currency reserves frozen by US and European sanctions, the yuan is the main asset Russia can still use for such operations. Russia gets around a third of its budget revenues from the oil and gas industry.
