Russia seen increasing state FX purchases

Russia's finance ministry is expected to increase its purchases of foreign currency for state reserves in December, a Reuters survey showed on Tuesday.

The median forecast from a survey of five analysts suggested Russia would buy 250 billion roubles ($3.92 billion) worth of foreign exchange in regular purchases on the open market this month. Individual forecasts ranged from 215 billion roubles to 283 billion roubles.

In the previous period, from Nov. 8 to Dec. 5, the ministry had planned to buy 228.2 billion roubles, or 11.4 billion roubles per day. Since February the central bank has been carrying out the FX purchases it postponed in 2018 due to high rouble volatility.