Russia's finance ministry is expected to increase its purchases of foreign currency for state reserves in October, a Reuters survey showed on Tuesday. The finance ministry is due to announce its purchasing plan for the month ahead on Thursday at 0900 GMT. The median forecast from the survey of eight analysts suggested Russia would buy 221.5 billion roubles ($3.40 billion) worth of foreign exchange in regular purchases on the open market from Oct. 7 to Nov. 7.

Individual forecasts ranged from 180 billion roubles to 230 billion roubles. Daily purchases are expected to increase to 9.6 billion roubles, according to Reuters estimates. In the previous period, from Sept. 6 to Oct. 4, the ministry had planned to buy 187.1 billion roubles, or 8.9 billion roubles per day.

Since Feb. 1, the central bank has been carrying out FX purchases it postponed in 2018 due to high rouble volatility, meaning the final buying figure for October may end up higher than the ministry's initial plan.

Copyright Reuters, 2019