The Finance Ministry of Russia plans to gradually hand over its duties related to foreign currency operations from the Bank of Russia to the Federal Treasury, First Deputy Finance Minister Tatiana Nesterenko told journalists.
"I think that maybe we will gradually create such an instrument, i.e. if we become technically prepared, we'll do this. We do not rule out this possibility," Nesterenko said when asked whether or not the Federal Treasury could be assigned duties to buy or sell foreign currencies in the market directly.
The Finance Ministry presently buys foreign currencies for the entire amount of extra O&G budget revenues that are wired to the coffers from rising oil prices, but this has been done through the Bank of Russia. The Federal Treasury which manages budget liquidity has no possibility to execute foreign currency transactions in an exchange directly.
