Russia to increase FX purchases

Russia's finance ministry is expected to increase purchases of foreign currency in April as oil prices rise, according to a Reuters poll. The median forecast of 12 analysts polled by Reuters was for the ministry to buy the equivalent of 233.5 billion roubles ($4.06 billion) between April 6 and May 8, up from 192.5 billion roubles in March. Analysts expect the finance ministry to buy the equivalent, on average, of 11.1 billion roubles per day during this period.
Stanislav Murashov, an analyst with Raiffeisenbank, said the reason for the bigger forex purchases is an increase in the average price for Russia's Urals crude blend to $64 per barrel over the last month from $63.3 in February.