Russia's National Wealth Fund drops 1.22 trln rubles to 11.88 trln rubles in Dec - Finance Ministry
MOSCOW. Jan 16 (Interfax) - Russia's National Wealth Fund (NWF) totaled nearly 11.88 trillion rubles, the equivalent of $116.837 billion or 6.2% of projected GDP for 2024, on January 1, 2025, the Finance Ministry said.
The NWF totaled nearly 13.097 trillion rubles, the equivalent of $121.558 billion or 6.8% of GDP, on December 1, thus the fund has declined by 1.217 trillion rubles.
Part of the NWF funds in Central Bank of Russia accounts totaling about 55.488 billion Chinese yuan and 58.957 tonnes of unallocated gold were sold for 1.3 trillion rubles in December, with the proceeds credited to the single account of the federal budget in order to finance its deficit. The use of the fund's resources is fully in line with the planned indicators for this year.
The federal budget in December also received income totaling 11.028 billion rubles, equivalent to $107.1 million, from placing NWF funds in foreign currency accounts with the CBR from December 15, 2023 to December 15, 2024.
The volume of unallocated gold in NWF accounts dropped to 187.749 tonnes in December from 279.563 tonnes on December 1, compared with 283.575 tonnes on November 1, 292.494 tonnes on October 1, 293.189 tonnes on September 1, 298.84 tonnes on August 1, 303.579 tonnes on July 1 and 329.705 tonnes on June 1. Over 30 tonnes were likely sold as part of liquidity management in addition to the 58.96 tonnes sold to finance the deficit. Gold has been sold from the account as part of the management of the liquid portion, and the proceeds used to finance certain projects, the Finance Ministry said earlier.
NWF accounts held about 164.044 billion rubles, down from nearly 219.533 billion rubles the previous month, when the decline was only owing to deficit financing operations. The decline in yuan volume was usually associated with placing "securities of other Russian issuers" in previous months. The Finance Ministry disclosed information about investments in the yuan-denominated bonds of Russian issuers for the first time in July, saying 3 billion yuan had been invested in these bonds, while 2.75 billion yuan was invested in them in August, 2 billion yuan in September, 1.25 billion yuan in October, and 1 billion yuan in November.
NWF accounts also held 1.631 billion rubles on January 1.
The volume of the fund's liquid assets totaled the equivalent of 3.81 trillion rubles, $37.469 billion or 2% of GDP, by the end of the year. The volume of the fund's liquid assets totaled about 5.792 trillion rubles, the equivalent of $53.759 billion or 3% of GDP, on December 1, and they totaled around 5.447 trillion rubles, $56.126 billion or 2.8% of GDP, on November 1, and about 5.255 trillion rubles, $56.682 billion or 2.7% of GDP, on October 1. The fund's liquid assets totaled around 4.854 trillion rubles, $53.236 billion or 2.5% of GDP, on September 1; about 4.665 trillion rubles, $54.038 billion or 2.4% of GDP, on August 1; 4.603 trillion rubles, $53.684 billion or 2.6% of GDP, on July 1; 5.046 trillion rubles, $56.2 billion or 2.8% of GDP, on June 1; 5.172 trillion rubles, $56.355 billion or 2.9% of GDP, on May 1; 5.087 trillion rubles, $55.083 billion or 2.8% of GDP, on April 1; 5.045 trillion rubles, $54.911 billion or 2.8% of GDP, on March 1; 4.907 trillion rubles, $54.958 billion or 2.7% of GDP, on February 1; and 5.012 trillion rubles, $55.88 billion or 3.3% of GDP, on January 1.