Ministry of Finance in August lost 18% of the Reserve Fund – RBC

Photo: Yekaterina Kuzmina / RBC

The Ministry of Finance for the third time since the beginning of the year spent Reserve Fund to finance the budget deficit. As a result, Russian sovereign funds have less than 7 trillion rubles

In August, Russia has lost nearly a fifth of the Reserve Fund -.. It decreased by 18.4% to 2.09 trillion rubles, said Tuesday, 6 of September, the Ministry of Finance. This is the largest reduction of the Reserve Fund as a percentage of the year and a half, it follows from the statistical department data. Including 390 billion rubles. have been spent in the past month to finance the federal budget deficit, the report said. The Finance Ministry has mobilized reserve fund to cover the budget deficit for the third time since the beginning of the year.

«Part of the Reserve Fund in foreign currency accounts with the Bank of Russia in the amount of $ 2.92 billion, € 2.46 billion and £ 0.31 billion were sold for 390 billion rubles, and the proceeds deposited into a single account of the federal budget “, -. noted in the Ministry of Finance reported. Another 80 billion rubles. The reserve fund is lost due to the negative revaluation of foreign currency accounts

Earlier, in 2016 the Ministry of Finance implemented twice the Reserve Fund to cover the federal budget deficit:. In April and May 2016 the Ministry of Finance spent from the fund to 390 billion rubles. for these purposes. In total for eight months in 2016 for financing 1.17 trillion rubles allocated to the budget deficit.

In the course difference (due to ruble appreciation) from the beginning of 2016 the Reserve Fund lost 380.5 billion rubles., Should be of the ministry of the message.

Due to the national welfare Fund (NWF) is not spent in August, but this month the fund was reduced to 123 billion rubles. (-2.5%) And amounted to 4.72 trillion rubles. Since the beginning of the year income from placing funds of the National Welfare Fund in foreign currency amounted to 15.41 billion rubles., And losses from the revaluation of the exchange rate reached 501.25 billion rubles.

So, to the beginning of September, two Russian sovereign funds left less than 7 trillion rubles. The volume of the Reserve Fund fell to the lowest level since the beginning of 2013.

Total in 2016 Ministry of Finance planned to spend from the reserve fund of 2.1 trillion rubles. Earlier, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, to keep the Reserve Fund spending at this level will be difficult in 2016 because the sum was formed on the basis of oil price of $ 50 per barrel. Deputy Finance Minister Maxim Oreshkin in August, expressed the opinion that the expenditure of the Reserve Fund this year may come close to the mark of 3 trillion rubles. in the event of the postponement of the privatization of “Rosneft».

The Bank of Russia believes that financing the budget deficit for the entire 2016 will need to use 2.4 trillion rubles. from the Reserve Fund, of which 1.2 trillion rubles. already in use. Expenditure Reserve Fund provides inflow of budget funds in the banking sector and thus contribute to the transition of the system to a structural surplus of liquidity deficit after five years. Other sources of financing the budget deficit, such as borrowing and privatization of state-owned companies, do not affect liquidity, but the Ministry of Finance has already exceeded the limit of net domestic borrowing this year (300 billion rubles.), And the privatization of all the time is delayed. Therefore, the Ministry of Finance operations increase the likelihood of the formation of “substantial fiscal overhang” at the end of 2016, it said in an August review of the Central Bank, “What do the trends».

At the end of 2016 will be 980 billion rubles in the Reserve Fund., Which will be exhausted in 2017, Reuters reported in July with reference to the materials to the draft budget in the years 2017-2019. In 2017, the government can use for budgeting purposes of SWF resources, Siluanov said in an interview with RBC in June. Now the NWF is not spent on financing the budget deficit, and about a third of its volume placed with Vnesheconombank and in infrastructure projects.