NWF declines by 1.47 trln rubles in Dec to 11.965 trln rubles, liquid portion totals 3.3% of GDP

MOSCOW. Jan 17 (Interfax) - Russia's National Wealth Fund totaled 11.965 trillion rubles as of January 1 and was the equivalent of $133.407 billion, or 8% of forecast GDP for 2023, the Finance Ministry said in a statement.

The NWF totaled about 13.433 trillion rubles on December 1, the equivalent of $151.129 billion, also 9% of forecast GDP for 2023, so the fund declined by 1.468 trillion rubles in the prior month.

The NWF's liquid assets as of January 1 were the equivalent of 5.012 trillion rubles or $55.88 billion and 3.3% of forecast GDP for 2023. A month prior liquid assets totaled 6.747 trillion rubles or $75.902 billion (4.5% of GDP).

In December, a portion of NWF funds on accounts with the Bank of Russia in the amounts of 114.948 billion Chinese yuan, 232.585 tonnes of unallocated gold and 573.7 million euros was sold for 2.9 trillion rubles. The proceeds were credited to the unified federal budget account in order to finance its deficit. As a result of these conversion operations, the NWF account in euros with the Central Bank of Russia was zeroed out.

Also in December, funds in foreign currency in the amount of 62.505 billion Chinese yuan and 91.312 tonnes of unallocated gold, acquired at the expense of the federal budget in August-December as a result of additional oil and gas revenues of the federal budget, were credited to the relevant NWF accounts.

Earlier, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov reported that by the end of 2023, about 1 trillion rubles would be credited to the National Welfare Fund.

In addition, 2.684 billion rubles (equivalent to $29.7 billion) of income from placing the fund's funds in foreign currency accounts with the Bank of Russia from December 15, 2022 to December 15, 2023, were credited to the federal budget.

227.331 billion Chinese yuan, 358.961 tonnes of gold in impersonal form and 1.514 billion rubles were placed in the accounts of the National Welfare Fund.