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Russia will buy 122.8 billion rubles (2.1 billion U.S. dollars) worth of foreign currency in the domestic market between Nov. 8 and Dec. 6 this year to keep the ruble steady, the Russian Finance Ministry said Friday.
This is a 60-percent increase from the foreign currency purchasing volume of 76 billion rubles (1.3 billion dollars) between Oct. 6 and Nov. 7, according to the ministry.
Daily purchase will rise to 5.8 billion rubles (98.9 million dollars) from previous 3.5 billion rubles (59.7 million dollars), the ministry said in a statement.
Using additional revenues from oil and gas exports, the ministry started foreign currency purchases in the domestic market in February to minimize the impact of volatile oil prices on the ruble exchange rate.
Extra revenue from oil and gas exports besides the revenue mentioned in the state budget was estimated at 125.8 billion rubles (2.14 billion dollars) in November, the ministry said.
The Finance Ministry purchases foreign currency via the central bank at trading sessions of the Moscow Stock Exchange.
