MOSCOW, October 10 (Itar-Tass) — Without replenishment of the Reserve Fund Russia’s 2012 budget 2012 will be balanced with the price of oil of $93 dollars a barrel, Acting Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said at parliamentary hearings.
“The price of the balance is $93 per barrel on the condition of not replenishing the Reserve Fund,” he said.
According to Siluanov, “all that is above” will be used to increase the national reserves in case of oil price fluctuations. If the average annual price is lower then, in his opinion, there are two ways: “We can take the remainder of Reserve Fund that will move from the current year to 2012, and will make decisions on cost optimisation.”
The acting finance minister said that the estimated amount of the Reserve Fund in 2011 will be 1 trillion and 673 billion roubles, and next year it is planned to be increased by 512 billion roubles. However, is oil prices are low, Siluanov said, it will not happen.
Before the crisis, in 2008, the Reserve Fund’s volume stood at about 4 trillion roubles, “we will be able to reach” such a volume only by 2014, he said.
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 Stabilization 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.