MOSCOW, October 3 (Itar-Tass) — The Russian Reserve Fund’s aggregate volume stood at 823.87 billion roubles, and the volume of the National Wealth Fund - at 2 trillion and 827.1 billion roubles as of October 1, the press service of the RF Finance Ministry reported on Monday.
The aggregate estimated amount of income from the placement of the Reserve Fund assets on foreign currency accounts in the Bank of Russia, converted into US dollars, for the period from January 15 to August 31, 2011 totalled 0.38 billion US dollars, which is equivalent to 12.16 billion roubles.
The aggregate estimated amount of income from the placement of National Wealth Fund’s assets on foreign currency accounts in the Bank of Russia, converted into US dollars, for the period from January 15 to August 31 totalled 1 billion US dollars, which is equivalent to 31.93 billion roubles.
As of September 1, the Reserve Fund’s volume was 772.28 billion roubles, and the volume of the National Wealth Fund - 2 trillion and 673 billion roubles.
According to the Finance Ministry, the Reserve Fund is a part of the federal budget assets. The Reserve Fund is dedicated to ensure financing of the federal budget expenses and maintaining federal budget balance in case oil and gas budget revenues decline. The Reserve Fund contributes to stability of the Russian Federation economic development by means of reducing inflationary pressure and insulating national economy from volatility of earnings generated by export of non-renewable natural resources. Actually the Reserve Fund substituted the Stabilisation Fund of the Russian Federation. However in contrast to Stabilisation Fund the Reserve fund accumulates not only federal budget revenues from production and export of oil, but also revenues from production and export of natural gas and oil products. Maximum size of the Reserve Fund is limited to 10 percent of the Russian Federation GDP forecasted for the corresponding fiscal year. Reserve Fund’s assets may be applied to finance oil and gas transfer to ensure balance of federal budget and for early foreign national debt repayment. Reserve Fund’s assets are applied to finance the oil and gas transfer without amending the federal law for the corresponding fiscal year and the planning period in case oil and gas revenues of the federal budget earned during the corresponding fiscal year are deficient for these purposes.
The maximum amount of Reserve Fund’s assets to be used to finance oil and gas transfer is approved by the federal budget law for the corresponding fiscal year and planning period. Use of Reserve Fund’s assets to finance the oil and gas transfer in periods of adverse market conditions allows to conduct balanced budget policy and contributes to stability of the social and economic development of the country, insulating it from volatility of global commodity markets.
The National Wealth Fund (NWF) is a part of federal budget assets. NWF is dedicated to support pension system of the Russian Federation to guarantee long-term sound functioning of the system. Fund’s primer assignments are to co-finance voluntary pension savings of Russian citizens and to balance budget of Pension Fund of the Russian Federation