Russia's finance ministry is seen increasing purchases of foreign currency for the state reserves in July due to higher oil prices but its daily FX purchases may decline compared with the previous month, a Reuters poll showed on Friday.
The finance ministry is expected to buy the equivalent of 395.0 billion roubles ($6.29 billion) from July 6 to August 6, compared with the 379.7 billion roubles it planned to buy in the previous period, a median forecast of 10 analysts showed. On a daily basis, purchases are expected to decline to the equivalent of 18 billion roubles ($286.70 million) compared with 19 billion roubles in the preceding period, the poll showed.