Total FX purchases on the market will be at 255.4 billion roubles, compared with 310 billion in the previous month, because revenues from oil and gas exports were lower than expected, the ministry said.

Analysts polled by Reuters expected the ministry to keep its purchases of foreign currency for state reserves in April at the same level as the previous month.

The actual amount of state purchases will be higher than the finance ministry had planned as the central bank from Feb. 1 started carrying out FX purchases it had postponed in 2018 due to rouble volatility.