National Wealth Fund shrank by 1.22 trillion rubles in December as gold and yuan covered the budget deficit
The volume of the National Wealth Fund (NWF) of Russia stood at 11 trillion 879 billion 972.7 million rubles ($116.837 billion), or 6.2% of 2024 GDP, as of January 1, 2025, Interfax reported on January 16, 2025. Over December the fund shrank by 1 trillion 217 billion rubles: a month earlier, on December 1, 2024, its volume stood at 13 trillion 096 billion 719.1 million rubles ($121.558 billion), or 6.8% of GDP.
Gold and yuan went to cover the deficit
In December the NWF sold 55 billion 488.4 million yuan and 58.957 tonnes of gold in unallocated form. The 1.3 trillion rubles raised were credited to the single account of the federal budget to finance the deficit; the use of fund resources matched the planned figures for the year.
The fund's gold holdings fell to 187.749 tonnes as of January 1, 2025, against 279.563 tonnes on December 1, 2024. Beyond the 58.96 tonnes sold for the deficit, more than 30 tonnes were probably sold as part of managing the liquid portion of the fund. Yuan holdings decreased from 219 billion 532.6 million to 164 billion 044.2 million: in December the reduction came solely from deficit operations, whereas in earlier months yuan had also been placed into bonds of Russian issuers — 3 billion in July, 2.75 billion in August, 2 billion in September, 1.250 billion in October and 1 billion yuan in November.
Liquid portion: 2% of GDP
The NWF's liquid assets at the end of 2024 totaled 3 trillion 809 billion 867 million rubles ($37.469 billion), or 2% of GDP. A month earlier the figure stood at 5 trillion 792 billion 014.8 million rubles ($53.759 billion, 3% of GDP), and on January 1, 2024 it was 5.012 trillion rubles ($55.88 billion, 3.3% of GDP).
December placements
Despite the overall contraction of the fund, placements into infrastructure and industrial projects continued in December:
- Rostec bonds — 111.094 billion rubles for aviation industry projects;
- Avtodor bonds — 32.842 billion rubles for the Kazan–Yekaterinburg highway (the Dyurtyuli–Achit section) and 2.52 billion rubles for the Central Ring Road;
- a subordinated deposit with VEB.RF — 137.039 billion rubles at 6% per annum;
- a deposit with VEB.RF — 2.833 billion rubles for St. Petersburg Metro rolling stock until August 2047 at 5% per annum;
- GTLK — 6.287 billion rubles for public transport rolling stock and 347.4 million rubles for preferential ship leasing;
- the Territory Development Fund — 564.4 million rubles.
Portfolio and repayments
As of January 1, 2025 the fund's portfolio included Sberbank ordinary shares worth 3 trillion 124 billion rubles, Russian Railways (RZD) preference shares worth 722.141 billion rubles, deposits and subordinated deposits with VEB.RF worth 892.895 billion rubles, Russian Automobile Roads (Avtodor) bonds worth 527.168 billion rubles, Rostec bonds worth 358.418 billion rubles, NLK-Finance worth 278.42 billion rubles, GTLK paper worth 176.078 billion rubles, Aviakapital-Service worth 175.389 billion rubles, Gazprombank shares worth 164.954 billion rubles, holdings in the Territory Development Fund worth 144 billion rubles, Aeroflot shares worth 139.533 billion rubles, DOM.RF worth 137 billion rubles, VTB shares worth 93.052 billion and 214.038 billion rubles, Atomenergoprom worth 57.5 billion rubles, GTLK shares worth 58.334 billion rubles, VK worth 60 billion rubles, Rosselkhozbank worth 25 billion rubles, and Ukrainian eurobonds worth $3 billion.
In December the fund also received partial repayments: NLK-Finance returned 2.667 billion rubles, GTLK — 126.8 million and 5.4 million rubles, while VEB.RF repaid ahead of schedule 158.6 million, 170.6 million and 140.7 million rubles on deposits for the KZhTs-1 and KZhTs-2 projects and Saratov airport.
Income and revaluation for 2024
In December the budget was credited with income from placing NWF funds in foreign currency for the period from December 15, 2023 to December 15, 2024 — 11.028 billion rubles ($107.1 million). Income from currency placements for December 15–31, 2024 amounted to $3.4 million (345.1 million rubles).
Exchange rate differences and revaluation for 2024 broke down as follows:
- foreign currency — 223.996 billion rubles;
- gold — 810.904 billion rubles;
- Ukrainian eurobonds — 35.974 billion rubles;
- currency-denominated securities of Russian issuers — 31.492 billion rubles.
Total income from placements into permitted assets, excluding funds on Central Bank accounts, amounted to 473.676 million rubles ($5.25 million) for 2024.
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