MOSCOW: Russia's finance ministry said on Friday it would buy 22.8 billion roubles ($309 million) worth of foreign currency a day between Dec. 7 and Jan. 13, a slight decrease in the amount of daily operations from the previous month.

The finance ministry said its regular FX and gold purchases on the market will total 502 billion roubles ($6.81 billion) over the month. A Reuters poll of analysts predicted that FX buying would total 475 billion roubles.

In the previous period, between Nov. 9 and Dec. 6, the ministry had planned to buy the equivalent of 518.2 billion roubles, or 25.9 billion roubles a day.

A recovery in prices for oil, Russia's key export, has enabled Russia to return to foreign currency purchases this year.

In 2020, Russia was selling FX, which helped to limit losses in the rouble amid a slump in oil prices, the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical risks.