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RUSSIA'S ECONOMY

Ex-finance minister says Russia's return to single sovereign fund reasonable

MOSCOW, June 19. /TASS/. Russia’s former Finance Minister and head of the Center for Strategic Development Aleksei Kudrin considers it reasonable to merge the Reserve Fund and the National Wealth Fund (NWF).

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Bank of Russia set to beef up international reserves

"It is reasonable to merge the Reserve Fund and the NWF. I proposed this in January 2016, and I welcome the Finance Ministry’s initiative," he wrote on his Twitter.

Earlier Russia’s Finance Minister Anton Siluanov did not rule out the two funds will be consolidated.

It was Kudrin’s idea to create a stabilization fund, which was eventually divided into two funds: the Reserve Fund to invest abroad in low-yield securities and be used when oil and gas incomes fall, and the National Welfare Fund to invest in riskier, higher return vehicles, as well as federal budget expenditures, to support the national pension system.

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