Page 40 - RusRPTJuly18

5.2.4 Gross international reserves
Russia will channel RUB2.2 trillion ($35.64bn) of oil and gas revenue to the National Wealth Fund after 2018 , Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told lawmakers in the lower house of parliament on Thursday. The National Wealth Fund will reach RUB3.6 trillion by the end of this year, Siluanov said. The Fund stood at RUB3.9 trillion as of June 1.
Russia has cuts its the share of US Treasury bonds (T-bonds) in its Fx/gold reserves to 10-year low , in April 2018 selling $47.5mn worth of US securities after the latest round of US sanctions, RBC business portal said on June 15 citing the Treasury data. Now the amount of T-bonds held in Russia's growing reserves has been cut from $96.1mn to $48.7mn. China remains the largest investor in T-bonds with $1.2 trillion, followed by Japan ($1.03 trillion), Ireland ($300bn), Brasil ($294bn), and UK ($262bn). Russia takes the 22nd place. The same month as the share of T-bonds in Russia was cut in April the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) was increasing its Fx/gold reserves by $1.3bn. Fitch Ratings in the latest report expects the Russian government to replenish its fiscal buffers by $60bn in 2018 under the Finance Ministry's foreign-exchange intervention programme, intended to accumulate oil and gas revenue savings and reduce the impact of oil price moves on the real effective exchange rate.
In 2013, Russia's investment in the US national debt exceeded $150bn,
they began to decline after the deterioration of relations with Western countries amid the conflict in Ukraine. In some months, Russia sold US government bonds for $20-25bn. In 2015, Russia increased its investments in the US public debt by $6.1bn, in 2016 - reduced by $6bn, in 2017 - increased by $16.1bn .
RUSSIA Country Report July 2018 www.intellinews.com