(Source: http://nation-news.ru/212285-minfin-vnov-zalez-v-rezervnyi-fond)

The Reserve Fund of Russia decreased by 18.4 percent and amounted to 2.09 trillion roubles by September 1, as compared with the beginning of last month. Such data are contained in the report of the Ministry of Finance. The volume of the National Welfare Fund (NWF) has decreased by 2.1 percent – down to 4.72 trillion roubles. 2.92 billion dollars, 2.46 billion euros and 310 million pounds from the Reserve Fund have been sold in August for 390 billion roubles and transferred to the account of the federal budget of Russia, as the report says.

Income from the placement of foreign currency funds on the accounts of the Central Bank has amounted to $ 230 million, or 14.99 billion roubles, for the period from January 15 to August 31, as the report of the Ministry of Finance goes. The balances of NWF funds on the accounts of the Central Bank as of September 1 amount to 19.56 billion dollars, 20.76 billion euros, 20 million roubles and 3.83 billion pounds.

The Fund’s income from the placement of foreign currency on the accounts of the Central Bank amounted to $ 240 million, or 15.41 billion roubles, from January 15 to August 31. On August 29 the Bank of Russia estimated the budget deficit of 2016 at 3.5 percent of GDP with the landmark of three percent. In order to cover the deficit, we will need the Reserve Fund money in the amount of 2.4 trillion roubles in the current year, as the regulator noted. In the middle of the month VEB published the forecast saying that the remainder of the Reserve Fund in the amount of 0.6 percent of GDP could be used up already in 2017. On August 5 the Deputy Finance Minister Maksim Oreshkin stated that due to the fall in Russian oil prices below $ 40 a barrel, the expected consumption of the Reserve Fund money should amount to about 2.3 trillion roubles in 2016.