MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia will increase its support of the rouble with higher net sales of foreign currency in September, according to new figures released by the Finance Ministry on Wednesday.
The ministry said it would increase its foreign currency sales to 1.4 billion roubles ($17.32 million) a day from September 5 to October 6, up from 0.3 billion roubles previously.
That will see it sell 31.5 billion roubles of foreign currency over the same period, compared with 6.2 billion roubles the previous month.
The move will increase the state’s overall daily net forex sales, which combine forex operations by the ministry and the central bank, to 10.34 billion roubles a day from September 5 from 9.24 billion roubles a day previously.
The central bank buys and sells forex to ensure a steady supply on the domestic market and on behalf of the finance ministry, which runs the National Wealth Fund.
The rouble weakened by 0.3% to 80.8 against the U.S. dollar by 0925 GMT on Wednesday, according to data compiled by LSEG based on over-the-counter quotes. It hit a one-month low against the dollar on September 1.
Chinese yuan make up the bulk of the central bank’s foreign currency operations, as the U.S. dollar and the euro cannot be used due to Western sanctions. The rouble weakened by 0.2% against the yuan on Wednesday.
Speaking at a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that national currencies were increasingly used in settlements with SCO members.
($1 = 80.8455 roubles)
(Reporting by Darya Korsunskaya, writing by Gleb Bryanski;’ Editing by Andrew Osborn)
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