Against the background of the introduction of a price restriction on Russian hydrocarbons supplied to the EU from February 1 and the general dynamics of falling oil prices, the Ministry of Finance of Russia, in order to maintain a deficit-free budget, began selling Chinese currency from the National Welfare Fund accumulated over previous periods.
If in January the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation has already sold more than 50 billion rubles worth of yuan, then taking into account February's daily sales volumes (an increase from 3.2 billion to 8.9 billion), this figure may amount to about 150 billion rubles.
At the beginning of 2023, 309.7 billion rubles were accumulated in the reserve fund of the Russian Federation. yuan received previously mainly from oil and gas revenues.
The sale of yuan is a forced measure and indicates a decrease in the overall profitability of the oil and gas sector of the Russian Federation.
The February figure included in the revenue part of the budget amounted to about 670 billion rubles.. In the current situation, the lost revenue is estimated by the Ministry at 108 billion rubles.
How long this trend of feeding the Russian budget will last will largely depend on global geopolitics, the pace of recovery of the Chinese manufacturing sector and dollar inflation.
