Russian Finance Ministry proposes extending pause in market operations under fiscal rule until situation becomes clear - finance minister

MOSCOW. March 26 (Interfax) - The suspension of operations with foreign currency/gold on the market under the fiscal rule will be prolonged, as time is needed for the factors affecting their parameters to become clear, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told journalists.

At the end of February, even before the surge in volatility on commodity markets due to the military conflict in Iran, Siluanov said that the government was considering reducing the base price in the fiscal rule (currently $59 per barrel) amid a shortfall in oil and gas revenues. Soon after, the Finance Ministry announced a decision not to conduct operations for the purchase/sale of foreign currency and gold on the domestic market in March due to the planned change in the base oil price parameter in the fiscal rule. On Thursday, on the sidelines of the congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP), Siluanov said that the fiscal rule was paused until summer.

"We could have suspended it for a month - and we did that. And now our proposal has been prepared to make the suspension period longer. Until the situation becomes clear, until the situation is clarified," he later told journalists.

"We have proposed this to the government - to extend the suspension of sales," he said.

The minister declined to disclose the Finance Ministry's proposals on the new parameters of the fiscal rule. According to him, changes were needed "so as not to use our entire remaining NWF [National Welfare Fund] balance, on the one hand, and on the other hand, to have the ability to accumulate in the event of a favorable market situation, because recently we have only been using NWF funds," he said. "And now we will work on expenditures, on collection rates, on formalizing [the economy and thereby increasing revenues]," he said.