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Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Russia's reserve fund could grow up to $4.9B this year

Russia's reserve fund could grow between $2.5 billion and $4.9 billion by the end of 2014 if oil and gas revenues improve, Anton Siluanov, the country's finance minister, announced on Monday.

While attending the annual meeting of the governing bodies for the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C., Siluanov said earlier plans to increase Russia's rainy day fund were dependent on oil prices.

“If the pricing environment will be the same as now, probably, there will be no possibilities for boosting the reserve fund,” Siluanov said. “If it improves somehow, we will send all the additional oil and gas revenues to the reserve fund.”

Established in 2008, the fund held approximately $90 billion as of Oct. 1.

Russian President Vladimir Putin recently signed an order that would allow the country to use oil and gas revenues, which normally would go to the reserve fund, to cover the budget deficit beginning in 2015.