Finance ministry to delay spending Russia’s Reserve Fund in 2017

VLADIMIR, May 19 (PRIME) -- The Finance Ministry plans to do its best to delay and minimize spending from the Reserve Fund in 2017, as there is no need to use the fund now and the ministry wants to keep receiving the yield on instruments in which the money is invested, Minister Anton Siluanov told reporters on Friday.

“There is no need in spending the Reserve Fund even though the budget encompasses spending from the Reserve Fund. However, we still haven’t used a kopeck from it since the beginning of the year. For now, we are getting by with the incoming revenue and remainders,” he said.

He added that the ministry will do everything it can to delay and minimize spending of the fund’s money.

But the ministry will have to cover budget deficit. “Still, we will delay spending from the Reserve Fund as this money is now invested in reliable instruments that bring a yield, so we want to keep the Reserve Fund intact on the one hand and receive a yield on this money on the other hand,” he said.

He added that the ministry will likely spend the National Wealth Fund.

On Wednesday, the ministry suggested cutting deficit of Russia’s 2017 budget by 30.1 to 1.924 trillion rubles, or to 2.1% of gross domestic product (GDP) from previously expected 3.2% of GDP. The ministry also said it plans to cut spending from the Reserve Fund to 1.061 trillion rubles from 1.15 trillion rubles, and spending from the National Wealth Fund may be reduced to 663.5 billion rubles from 668.2 billion rubles.

(57.4683 rubles – U.S. $1)

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