Russia's National Wealth Fund falls 42.7 bln rubles to 11.922 trillion rubles in Jan, liquid assets 2.7% of GDP
MOSCOW. Feb 5 (Interfax) - Russia's National Wealth Fund totaled just over 11.922 trillion rubles as of February 1 and was the equivalent of $133.526 billion, or 6.6% of forecast GDP for 2024, the Finance Ministry said in a statement.
The NWF was about 11.965 trillion rubles on January 1, the equivalent of $133.407 billion, or 8% of forecast GDP for 2024, so the fund declined by 42.704 billion rubles during February.
The NWF's liquid assets as of February 1 were the equivalent of 4.907 trillion rubles or $54.958 billion and 2.7% of forecast GDP for 2024. The liquid assets were 5.013 try or $55.88 billion and 3.3% of GDP on January 1 and 6.747 trillion rubles or $75.902 billion and 4.5% in December 1.
NWF accounts also held 227.517 billion yuan, 358.961 tonnes of unallocated gold and 294.8 million rubles.
Deposits, including a subordinated deposit with VEB.RF, held 658.589 billion rubles and a subordinated deposit with Gazprombank held 38.424 billion rubles. A total of $3 billion had been invested in Ukrainian Eurobonds.
In addition, NWF money was invested in ordinary shares of Sberbank - 3.114 trillion rubles, VTB - 133.714 billion rubles, Aeroflot - 92.026 billion rubles, DOM.RF - 137 billion rubles, State Transport Leasing Company - 58.334 billion rubles; in preferred shares of Russian Railways - 722.141 billion rubles, JSC Atomenergoprom - 57.5 billion rubles, VTB - 143.693 billion rubles, Gazprombank - 89.954 billion rubles, Russian Agricultural Bank - 25 billion rubles; in bonds of NLK-Finance LLC - 190.195 billion rubles, VK LLC at 60 billion rubles, Russian Highways Group at 296.014 billion rubles, Aviacapital-Service - 175.389 billion rubles, Territories Development Fund - 120 billion rubles, State Transport Leasing Company - 99.453 billion rubles, Infrastructure Investments-4 LLC - 4.05 billion rubles, Rostec state corporation - 17.952 billion rubles and other Russian issuers - 11 billion rubles and $1.8764 billion.
Total estimated income from placing NWF funds in foreign currency accounts with the Bank of Russia, converted into dollars, for the period from December 15, 2023, to January 31, 2024 was $14 million, equivalent to 1.25 billion rubles.
The total income from the placement of NWF funds in permitted financial assets, excluding funds in accounts with the Bank of Russia, was 7.165 billion rubles in 2024, equivalent to $80.1 million.
The exchange rate difference on the balance of the fund's assets denominated in foreign currency was negative 35.561 billion rubles and in gold it was negative 67.19 billion rubles, on Ukrainian Eurobonds negative 1.199 billion rubles and on securities of Russian issuers associated with self-sustaining infrastructure projects and denominated in foreign currency negative 749.5 million rubles.
The federal budget in January received income from the placement of funds from the NWF for deposits with VEB.RF totaling 5.227 billion rubles or the equivalent of $58.3 million, 1.742 billion rubles or $19.6 million from the securities of Russian issuers related to self-sustaining infrastructure projects and 196.8 million rubles or $2.2 million from NLK-Finance bonds.
NLK-Finance LLC in January partially redeemed bonds - 1.5% of the nominal value - acquired with funds from the National Welfare Fund in April 2023; 804.7 million rubles were credited to NWF account with the Bank of Russia. State Transport Leasing Company also partially redeemed bonds purchased with NWF money in July 2023 to finance the infrastructure project "Purchase of rolling stock for passenger transport for subsequent leasing," crediting 62.1 million rubles to the NWF account in January.
Also in January, VEB.RF prepaid some NWF funds placed in 2016-2020 from deposits for financing LCC-1 - 142.2 million rubles, and LCC-2 - 90.4 million rubles.