Over 500 bln rubles might be used from Reserve Fund in 2015 - Russian MinFin
MOSCOW. Dec 2 (Interfax) - Over 500 billion rubles from the Reserve Fund might be used to finance budgetary spending in 2015, the head of long-term strategic planning at the Finance Ministry, Maxim Oreshkin, told journalists.
"The use of the Reserve Fund is already predestined; the question is of how much. It's not being ruled out that over 500 billion rubles might be used in certain scenarios," he said. Oreshkin did not say how much more might actually be used.
He added that there were still risks in carrying out the foreign and domestic borrowing program and privatization.
Oreshkin said that the Finance Ministry might raise 275 billion rubles in foreign debt in 2015. "The likelihood is high that we aren't going to enter the market in such a situation because Russia trades at over a percent higher than Turkey on even the secondary [market]," he said.
Oreshkin said it would be decided in the summer whether the ministry would enter the foreign market. "Whether we refrain from this or not - we will transfer this amount to the domestic debt program," he said.
He added 800 billion rubles were planned to be borrowed on the market in 2015 and around 200 billion rubles in a securities exchange program with the Central Bank.
Discussing VTB's proposal that the Finance Ministry issue benchmark Russian Eurobonds on Asian markets, Oreshkin said: "Such a possibility shouldn't theoretically be ruled out, but it's clear that the benchmark will be in much smaller amounts. It's possible to talk about issuing in other currencies, but the amounts that are possible are lower than planned. I think that such a variant cannot be viewed as a means for raising funds, but can be considered in light of other goals. For now, we are not preparing anything of the sort, but we're considering everything."
"Assuming that $80 per barrel is an optimistic price, one has to think about medium-term budgetary optimization. In 2015, aside from basic safety nets - the undistributed balance of budgetary funds and the anticrisis reserve - our main protection as concerns spending is the reserve fund," Oreshkin said.
Discussing an increase in the fund for 2014, he said: "Transfers to the Reserve Fund will be a positive sign." The size of the fund will depend on how much spending is still possible at the end of the year. "It's not necessary to talk about a significant transfer. The maximum is several dozen billion rubles," he said.
