Page 89 - RusRPTJul22

Russian Federation origin is prohibited, except to the extent provided by law, or unless licensed or otherwise authorized by OFAC," the document says. "This determination excludes gold of Russian Federation origin that was located outside of the Russian Federation prior to today," the US Treasury notes. The order comes into effect from the moment of publication. The US Treasury Department notes that the ban in particular applies to all gold-related transactions involving the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the National Wealth Fund and the Russian Ministry of Finance.
Russia’s sovereign National Welfare Fund (NWF) in May 2022 gained RUB1.47 trillion to RUB12.5 trillion, or $42.8bn in US dollar terms to $197.7bn, Kommersant daily reported citing the press service of the Finance Ministry. The NWF bounced back after RUB2 trillion was reported previously for April.
As followed by bne IntelliNews, Russia’s foreign currency reserves and the NWF are not expected to grow this year, despite record earnings flowing into state coffers from sky-high commodity prices.
With the war in Ukraine costing an estimated $20bn a month and the rest of the economy in need of significant funding to cushion it from the economic shock caused by sanctions, demands on the Russian budget will eat up all the surpluses. The government already said it would recapitalise Russian Railways from the NWF for RUB250bn, Gazprombank for RUB50bn, as well as Aeroflot (for RUB107bn according to unconfirmed reports), and the DOM.RF state mortgage agency. Another RUB120bn could be deposited in the state development bank VEB.RF.
An additional spending of RUB17bn from the NWF has been approved to recapitalise distressed air carriers, among them Urals Airlines, Sibir and Avrora.
The liquid part of NWF assets in the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) as of end of May amounted to RUB9.3 trillion, or 6.9% of GDP forecasted for 2022 by the Finance Ministry. The liquid part of the NWF also increased as compared to end-April, when it stood at RUB7.9 trillion.
Previously, the head of the CBR, Elvira Nabiullina, claimed that unlike the central bank’s funds frozen under the Western sanctions, the NWF remains fully available for investment.
The NWF as of end-April consisted of deposits in the CBR (€51bn, GBP4.2bn, JPY800bn, CNY309bn, RUB252bn and 554 tonnes of gold). Notably, as compared to the previous FinMin repot, the NWF gained over €20bn and over 100 tonnes of gold in one month.
Deposits in the VEB.RF state development bank remained unchanged at RUB530bn, as well as $3bn invested in foreign sovereign bonds. NWF had RUB278bn and $2.3bn invested in domestic infrastructure bonds, and RUB302bn in Russian equities (preferred shares of banks).
Another RUB138bn accounted for subordinated deposits in VTB Bank and Gazprombank, but this time the FinMin report did not mention the RUB1.4
89 RUSSIA Country Report October 2020 www.intellinews.com