MOSCOW : Russia may buy rupee, yuan & lira for rainy day fund

MOSCOW : Russia is considering buying the currencies of “friendly” countries such as India, China and Turkey to hold in its National Wealth Fund (NWF), having lost the ability to buy dollars or euros due to sanctions, the central bank said on Friday.

The bank said it was sticking to the policy of a free-floating rouble exchange rate but highlighted that it was important to reinstate a budget rule which diverts excess oil revenues into the country’s rainy day fund. In a report on its monetary policy for 2023-25, the central bank said various options on how to return to the fiscal rule and replenish the NWF are now being discussed, taking into account the Western sanctions against Russia over its actions in Ukraine.

“The Russian ministry of finance is working on the possibility of implementing an operational mechanism of the budget rule mechanism for the replenishment/spending of the NWF in currencies of friendly countries (yuan, rupee, Turkish lira and others),” the central bank said.

Experts have voiced concerns about insufficient liquidity in such currencies and about the possible risks. Inflation in Turkey, for example, jumped to nearly 80% in June, a 24-year high.
Alexei Zabotkin, the central bank first deputy governor who presented the report on Friday, said the parameters of the new budget rule were still under consideration. He pointed out that liquidity in yuan-rouble trading has approached the levels of the euro-rouble currency pair on the Moscow Exchange.