OREANDA-NEWSOn March 30, the Central Bank sold 16 billion rubles in the foreign currency market (by tomorrow’s settlements). - 20% more than the day before, the regulator revealed.

Based on the weighted average dollar to ruble exchange rate at the Moscow Exchange on March 30, currency sales amounted to $ 200 million. Bank of Russia intervention accounted for 5.3% of the total volume of transactions in dollars and euros on Mosbirz on that day. Prior to this, over the course of a week, the Central Bank sold currency daily on average by 13.5 billion rubles, or $ 170 million.

The increase in interventions is associated with a fall in the price of Russian Urals oil to lows since 1999. On Monday, March 30, the price of physical batches of Urals dropped to $ 13 per barrel. The Central Bank, within the framework of the unofficial “second budget rule”, sells currency in the open market in the amount of Russia's lost export earnings from the sale of oil and gas at prices below $ 25 per barrel of Urals.