UrBC, Moscow, February 6, 2019. Russia’s Finance Ministry intends to direct RUB 194 billion to foreign currency purchases in February 2019. The purchases will be made between February 7 and March 6, 2019, with the average daily purchase amount at the equivalent of RUB 9.7 billion, the ministry’s website states.

This specific amount of money has been allocated for the purpose this month based on the prediction that the extra oil and gas revenues in the national budget will amount to RUB 203.6 billion in February 2019 (given that the actual current oil prices are higher than the worst-case-scenario figures). Also, the actual revenues for January fell short of the original predictions by RUB 9.6 billion.

Now the Finance Ministry initially intended to purchase RUB 265.8 billion worth of foreign currency in January 2019 (RUB 15.6 billion worth of dollars and euros a day). This means that the planned purchasing amount for February is 1.37 times smaller than that for one month previously.