Russia to halve Chinese yuan sales in July

ST. PETERSBURG, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Russia's Ministry of Finance will sell 34.9 billion rubles (about 385 million U.S. dollars) worth of Chinese yuan between July 7 and Aug. 4, the ministry said Wednesday on its website.

The ministry had planned to sell 74.6 billion roubles (822 million U.S. dollars) worth of Chinese currency yuan for the previous month, which means the volume of yuan sales in July would more than halve.

According to the ministry, oil and gas revenues in June fell short of expectations by about 30.3 billion rubles (330 million U.S. dollars), and a shortfall of 4.5 billion rubles (50 million U.S. dollars) is expected in July. Therefore, nearly 34.9 billion rubles of yuan equivalent needs to be sold.

Russia sells foreign currency to cover budget deficit amid lower oil and gas revenues. After several months' hiatus, Russia resumed foreign currency interventions in January, trading in yuan instead of Western currencies.