From the second half of this year, the Russian Ministry of Finance (Minfin) may start accumulating Chinese yuan at the rate of $500-700 million per month on dollar basis to sell from the National Welfare Fund (NWF). By May 2023, the volume of foreign exchange sold to meet increased government spending will need to be reduced amid increasing international sanctions. informs The Bloomberg agency cites the calculations of its own economists.
Foreign exchange sales by the Ministry of Finance are carried out within the framework of the budget mechanism, which should help reduce the risks of deterioration of the economic situation in the country against the background of a possible decrease in stock prices for oil. To achieve this target, the department will generate sales of 119.8 billion rubles ($1.6 billion) in March. The article also states that, in monetary terms, this amount is 40% less than the previous month.
“Foreign currency sales in April may drop to as low as $500 million before the Treasury moves to foreign currency purchases. At the same time, the agency could start accumulating $500 to $700 million yuan per month in the second half of the year.
The choice in favor of the Chinese currency is explained by the fact that most of Russia’s international reserves are currently blocked due to European and American sanctions. The note concludes that with such restrictions, Moscow is still the main asset it can use to sell from the National Welfare Fund (NWF) to meet increased government spending.
March 3 Press Service of the Ministry of Finance of Russia (MinFin) published Statistics on the Telegram channel, according to which the federal budget will receive less than 132.1 billion rubles of oil and gas revenue in March 2023. The deviation of actual raw material revenues from the expected monthly volume amounted to 12.3 billion rubles.