MOSCOW: Russia's finance ministry is expected to increase its purchases of foreign currency for state reserves to around $3.4 billion in the coming month, a Reuters survey showed on Friday. The finance ministry will announce its buying plan for the period from July 7 to Aug 5 at 0900 GMT on Monday.

The median forecast from a survey of seven analysts suggested Russia would buy 250 billion roubles ($3.43 billion) worth of foreign exchange in regular purchases on the open market under its fiscal rule. Individual forecasts ranged from 230 billion roubles to 301 billion roubles.