Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev announced that 8 billion rubles of unallocated subsidies will most likely be added to the Reserve Fund this year. At the current exchange rate, the amount is equivalent to about $140 million.
“It has been proposed to boost the fund by another 8 bln rubles using subsidies that have not been allocated before February 1 this year,” he said.
According to Medvedev, 16.2 bln rubles ($284.2 mln) were added to the Reserve Fund in early April using last year’s unallocated federal budget funds, reported Russian state news agency TASS.
Russia depleted much of its reserves attempting to defend the ruble as it hit historic lows after the Crimean invasion, approximately 80 to the USD. The Bank of Russia has been attempting to rebuild these rainy day funds as able.
As the Finance Minister reported earlier the Reserve Fund decreased 1.97% in March 2017 compared to February 2017 to 912.95 bln rubles ($16.19 bln). The Reserve Fund in dollar terms increased 0.75% as of April 1. The balances on separate accounts of the Reserve Fund amounted to $7.62 bln, 6.71 bln euro and 1.1 bln pounds sterling, the ministry said.
