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coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine
MOSCOW, April 5 (Reuters) - Russia's finance ministry said on Wednesday it would sell 3.7 billion roubles' ($46.6 million) worth of foreign currency a day between April 7 and May 5, a decrease in the volume of daily operations from the previous month. After a hiatus of several months, Russia resumed foreign exchange interventions in January, selling yuan rather than the currencies of what it terms "unfriendly" Western countries, underscoring the growing importance of China's currency in Moscow's effort to ensure economic stability amid Western sanctions.
The finance ministry said its regular FX sales on the market would total 74.6 billion roubles ($939 million) over the coming month. A Reuters survey of analysts had predicted sales would total 77.5 billion roubles.
In the previous period, between March 7 and April 6, the ministry had planned to sell 119.8 billion roubles' worth of foreign currency to compensate for lower oil and gas revenues.
Russia halted forex interventions last year as Western nations imposed sweeping sanctions against Moscow, including the freezing of about $300 billion in foreign exchange reserves, after it sent its armed forces into Ukraine in February. The government carries out forex interventions to cover shortfalls - or build up reserves in the case of a surplus - in earnings from vital oil and gas exports. The dollar was king in Russia for decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, but over the past year the yuan has grown significantly in importance. ($1 = 79.4500 roubles) (Reporting by Darya Korsunskaya and Alexander Marrow; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
