Russia's rainy day fund has been replenished with new trillions
Russia not only practically did not spend funds from the National Welfare Fund in the last crisis year, but also managed to increase them.
The head of the Russian Accounts Chamber, Alexei Kudrin, announced this today in the State Duma of the Russian Federation, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“As of March 1, the value of the National Welfare Fund amounted to 13 trillion 552 billion rubles. This amounts to 11,7% of GDP. 8 trillion 686 billion rubles (7,5% of GDP) are stored in liquid free funds in accounts. Now they will be more actively used for investing in the economy. The volume of funds in financial assets, including infrastructure bonds, is 4 trillion 865 billion (4,2% of GDP).
Last year, 293,5 billion rubles were spent. Of these, 289,8 billion rubles are used to cover the budget deficit. RUB 3,7 billion was spent on co-financing citizens’ funded pensions.
Over the past year, the Fund increased by 6 trillion 390 billion rubles due to funds accumulated in 2019 and due to the revaluation of funds due to changes in the exchange rate,” Kudrin said.
According to him, the Russian government solved the problems caused by the crisis by borrowing from the market.
“There was no need for large expenditures from the fund. Spending on anti-crisis measures last year was mainly carried out using borrowed funds - more than 5 trillion rubles. The fund is saved for other difficult situations and for future investments
I advocated for more use of the Fund in a year of crisis. The government spent heavily, but at the expense of borrowing from the market. Borrowings took place with an imperceptible increase in profitability, that is, the market provided normal resources,” Kudrin said.
Russian version :: Read in English Russia's rainy-day nest egg has been replenished with new trillions.