MOSCOW, September 4. /TASS/. Russia should keep on investing money from the National Welfare Fund (NWF) instead of stockpiling it, Sberbank CEO German Gref told Nailya Askerzade in an interview in the Vesti program on the Rossiya-1 TV channel. He also said the government is pursuing an absolutely sound policy in this regard.
"When you talk about whether it is necessary to continue accumulating, it means that we are accumulating now. But we have little savings in the NWF today. About 4 trillion rubles, which is less than 2% of GDP. That is, these are very small savings. In general, we are financing the economy today. In our country, more than 70% of the National Welfare Fund is invested in the real economy, in real projects, which is absolutely rational during this period of time. I believe that the government is pursuing an absolutely rational policy here," Gref said.
Otherwise it would not have been possible to weather some restrictions.
"But in particular, this year, 300 billion from the National Welfare Fund will be allocated for the construction of a high-speed railway. Not only for the construction of the road itself, but also for the train. And there are a lot of such projects, primarily logistical. And I think it's inevitable," he stressed.
"This is why it seems to me that this policy will have to continue, and until the 30th year, in my opinion, about 80 trillion should be allocated for investment. And it will be impossible here without continuing this policy. This is why, it seems to me that now is not the time to accumulate, now is the time to invest. In such difficult times, the economy should receive not only shocks, but also rails for its development, blood for its development. Without the NWF, that would be hard to do," concluded the head of Sberbank.