(Adds detail on energy revenues, deficit, NWF, analyst)
May 4 (Reuters) - Russia's finance ministry said on
Thursday it would sell 2 billion roubles' ($25 million) worth of
foreign currency a day between May 10 and June 6, a decrease in
the volume of daily operations from the previous month.
After a hiatus of several months, Russia resumed foreign
currency interventions in January, selling yuan rather than what
it terms "unfriendly" Western currencies, underscoring the
growing importance of China's currency in Moscow's efforts to
ensure economic stability amid Western sanctions.
The finance ministry said its regular FX sales on the market
would total 40.4 billion roubles ($513 million) over the coming
month. A Reuters survey of analysts had predicted sales would
total 27.5 billion roubles.
In the previous period, between April 7 and May 5, the
ministry had planned to sell 74.6 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.
The government carries out forex interventions to cover
shortfalls - or build up reserves in the event of a surplus - in
earnings from Russia's vital oil and gas exports.
The ministry forecast the shortfall in oil and gas
revenues to the budget in May at 8.1 billion roubles. In April,
those revenues were 32.4 billion roubles less than expected.
Russia's federal budget balance sank to a deficit of 2.4
trillion roubles ($31 billion) in the first quarter of the year
as Moscow spent heavily and energy revenues fell.
The central bank sold 409.1 billion roubles' worth of
yuan from the National Wealth Fund (NWF) on the finance
ministry's behalf between January and April.
Extra commodity income from June onwards may lead to
small foreign currency purchases, said Dmitry Polevoy, head of
investment at Locko-Invest.
($1 = 78.7000 roubles)
(Reporting by Darya Korsunskaya and Alexander Marrow; Editing
by Kevin Liffey)
