BOFIT Viikkokatsaus / BOFIT Weekly Review 2016/23
The value of the National Welfare Fund stood at 4.8 trillion rubles ($73 billion or 6 % of GDP) as of end-May. So far this year, about 7 billion rubles ($100 million) has been used to cover pension expenditure.
The entire Reserve Fund and about two-thirds of the National Welfare Fund are counted as part of Russia’s foreign currency reserves. The CBR oversees these assets and invests them in low-risk, highly liquid currency-denominated securities as it does with the rest of the nation’s currency reserves. The value of Russia’s foreign currency reserves does not automatically fall when money is withdrawn from the reserve funds. When the funds are used to cover expenses in rubles, the central bank exchanges foreign currency for rubles and the currency reserves remain unchanged. The value of Russia’s foreign currency reserves, which has risen slightly this year, stood at €388 billion at end-May.
Value of Russian oil funds
Sources: Macrobond, Russian Ministry of Finance and BOFIT.