Page 64 - bneIntelliNews monthly country report Russia May 2024

5.2.4 Gross international reserves
Russia Foreign Exchange Reserves was measured at 396.2 USD bn in Mar 2024, compared with 402.0 USD bn in the previous month.
The assets of Russia's National Wealth Fund (NWF) stood at the equivalent of $135.7 billion as of April 1, or 7.0% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), compared to $133.4 billion on March 1, the finance ministry said on Tuesday. The fund's liquid assets totalled the equivalent of $55.1 billion, or 2.8% of projected GDP, up from $54.9 billion a month earlier, the ministry said.
Moscow has earmarked using cash from the National Wealth Fund (NWF)
alongside bond placements (4.1 trillion rubles is planned to be raised in debt in 2024) to cover this year’s annual deficit. With interest rates of 16%, taking on more debt is clearly an expensive endeavor. Papers with floating interest rates represent 50% of Russian government borrowing and changes in the central bank’s key rate increase the risk to the budget. In 2019, servicing the national debt took up 3.6% of budget spending. In 2024 that will almost have doubled to 6.5%. Siluanov said it could reach 9.7% in 2026.
64 RUSSIA Country Report May 2024 www.intellinews.com