Russia will continue to save in the box - but in rubles
The Russian government will not abandon the practice of deferring excess income from the sale of oil and gas to the National Welfare Fund (NWF).
Finance Minister Anton Siluanov announced this today in the Russian State Duma, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“We are of the opinion that in conditions of good external conditions, if we spend the revenues that come into the budget and create new obligations, then when circumstances worsen, we will not have a source for financing them. Therefore, we saved opportunistic income for those times when there is no such income. And we are now actively using these resources.
We still have to use them for two more years. Therefore, the national welfare fund is here to stay. These funds are provided to us by the Central Bank. We take rubles from the Central Bank and finance both projects and current expenses. If this source did not exist, we would have to go to the market. On the market we would be given loans at higher interest rates. Our maintenance costs have already increased 2,5 times. The cost of credit in the economy would also rise. It seems to me that this is the wrong position,” Siluanov said.
According to him, the government intends to actively use NWF funds in 2023 and 2024.
“We will have an unbalanced budget this year and next. Revenues will be lower than in previous years as we implement new goals. We will balance our tasks taking into account the attraction of funds from the National Welfare Fund,” Siluanov said.
Russia will continue to save money in the piggy bank – but now in rubles.