Middle East war oil windfall arrives, Russia announces: will repurchase foreign exchange.

The Russian Ministry of Finance announced that due to the high oil prices caused by the Iran war, Russia's oil export revenue has increased, and Russia will conduct its first foreign exchange market purchase since the outbreak of the Ukraine war in the next month. The Ministry of Finance stated that from May 8 to June 4, it will purchase foreign exchange worth 110.3 billion rubles from the National Welfare Fund for budget stabilization, mainly in yuan. This move is also aimed at preventing the ruble from strengthening excessively. However, after the announcement, the ruble to yuan exchange rate on the Moscow Exchange rose by 0.9%, as traders and analysts had previously expected the government to be more aggressive in buying foreign exchange. This purchase will be carried out by the central bank. After offsetting with the bank's own business, the country's daily net foreign exchange purchase amount will reach 1.18 billion rubles, while the current daily average sales amount is 4.6 billion rubles.