MOSCOW: Russia’s finance ministry is expected to ease support for the rouble by cutting its regular sales of foreign currency under its fiscal rule to around $600 million in the coming month, a Reuters survey showed on Tuesday.

The finance ministry will announce its sales plan for the month ahead from Dec. 7 on Thursday.

The median forecast from a survey of eight analysts suggested Russia would sell 45.5 billion roubles ($598 million) worth of foreign currency from its state reserves in regular operations under its fiscal rule. Forecasts ranged from 20 billion to 68 billion roubles.

In this period, daily purchases are expected to fall to 2.1 billion roubles, according to Reuters estimates, from 2.5 billion roubles in the previous period.

In the previous period, between Nov. 9 and Dec. 4, the ministry had planned to sell 50.1 billion roubles.

Daily FX sales have helped the rouble weather volatility on global financial markets since March, limiting losses in the Russian currency amid a slump in oil prices, the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical risks.

Still, it has lost more than 20% of its value against the dollar so far this year.—Reuters