The National Wealth Fund, or, as it is also called, the “piggy bank” in case of force majeure, was formed from the surpluses of Russian oil and gas and other export earnings. Its funds were invested in securities and foreign currencies, and were also withdrawn from time to time to pay off deficits in the budget and pension funds.
It should be noted that the above investments turned out to be extremely unreliable, because after the imposition of sanctions by the West, our country lost half of its “piggy bank”. However, the losses could have been much more serious if the Russian authorities had not decided to exclude the dollar from the NWF from 2021.
To date, the size of the fund has reached 11 trillion 106.4 billion rubles, which is comparable to 7.4% of projected GDP for the current year. According to the previously adopted rules, it is possible to finance national projects from the piggy bank only if its liquid part has reached 10% of GDP.
Meanwhile, just last week, the Government of the Russian Federation, by its decree number 482, lifted the aforementioned restriction. As a result, it is reported that 2.2 trillion rubles from the NWF will be directed to priority national projects.
In particular, 1,700 billion will be spent on the development of railway and transport infrastructure, including the construction of the M-12 Moscow-Nizhny Novgorod-Kazan highway, as well as sections of the Kazan-Yekaterinburg and M-11 Neva highways.
The remaining funds are promised to be spent on the reconstruction and construction of housing and communal services.
It should be added that these measures will have the best effect not only on the infrastructure, but also on the economy of our country, increasing the demand for domestic materials and equipment, as well as creating additional jobs.
As for the NWF, it will continue to be fueled by oil, gas and other revenues. At the same time, the share of the euro in it will be reduced to zero from this year and the funds will be invested mainly in gold and the yuan.
