Russian National Wealth Fund to be replenished by 1 trln rubles in 2023 - Siluanov

MOSCOW. Dec 26 (Interfax) - The National Wealth Fund (NWF) in 2023, as previously forecast, will be replenished by 1 trillion rubles, while at the same time 2.9 trillion rubles will be allocated from the fund to balance the budget, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said.

"At the end of the year, we plan the volume of the National Wealth Fund to be at 12 trillion rubles, of which the liquid part, as we say, not related to projects, will be about 4.7 trillion rubles. This year, in the budget, we accounted for the use of 2.9 trillion rubles in National Wealth Fund funds on the one hand, and on the other, we accounted for replenishment of approximately 1 trillion rubles. So it will be; we will fulfill our plans. We will replenish it by about 1 trillion rubles. By the way, we have already replenished - some of the funds have already transferred, and in December, the National Wealth Fund had already received them. Moreover, for December it will arrive at the beginning of next year, that is, the total amount will be 1 trillion in replenishment. And we will use 2.9 trillion rubles as planned to fulfill expenditure obligations, that is, a balance of 1.9 trillion rubles, as planned," he said in an interview with Rossiya 24.

"Next year the situation is better; we also plan to both replenish and use resources, and on average the volume of replenishment will be about 500 billion rubles. That is, we will increase the National Wealth Fund by half-a-trillion rubles next year. According to the forecast for 2025-2026, it will be replenished by approximately 1.8 trillion rubles," Siluanov said.

In September, the Ministry of Finance estimated that by the beginning of 2024, the volume of the fund would be 12.177 trillion rubles, and replenishment was planned at 1.089 trillion rubles. At the beginning of the year, the volume of the fund was 10.435 trillion rubles (6.3% of GDP).

In addition, earlier the Ministry of Finance had expected to replenish the National Wealth Fund by transferring additional oil and gas budget revenues received from 2023 through 2025: 333.8 billion rubles in 2024, 1.821 trillion rubles in 2025, and 1.836 trillion rubles in 2026.

It is planned to use NWF funds of 1.3 trillion rubles to ensure the federal budget is balanced in 2024 only.