The Russian authorities have decided to increase the volume of transactions for buying foreign currency on the stock exchange by 3.2 times to replenish the National Welfare Fund in March.
"In total, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, conducting operations in the interests of the budget, will buy on the stock exchange $ 2.1 billion - a record amount since February last year", - reports finanz.ru.
To achieve the planned indicators, the Ministry of Finance will withdraw $ 91 million (6.7 billion rubles) from the market turnover every day.
This amount is 2.8 times higher than the current volume of foreign exchange interventions of 2.8 billion rubles.
The money will be withdrawn from the additional revenues of the oil and gas industry, the proceeds from which in March are projected at 116.9 billion rubles.
The practice of foreign exchange interventions in Russia resumed in January this year. According to the budget rule, the NWF is replenished if the price per barrel of Russian Urals oil exceeds $ 43.25.
After a sharp coronavirus fall, oil prices rose again by 80%, but the position of the ruble did not improve from this. Analysts believe that in the current environment, the ruble has no chance of strengthening below 73 rubles per dollar.