Reserve Fund of Russia from Monday, January 1, ceases to exist. Formally, he joins the National Welfare Fund (NWF). According to the new norms of the Budget Code, all additional revenues from the oil and gas industry will henceforth be directed to the NWF.

Now in the event of a sharp fall in revenues to the treasury, the state budget deficit will be financed from the National Welfare Fund. The Fund will also become a source of financing the budget deficit in the case of co-financing of voluntary pension savings, the Federal News Agency. In 2018 for these purposes will allocate more than 1.1 trillion rubles.

In the coming years, according to the authorities' forecasts, the funds of the NWF will be spent only on pension savings. In addition, this year the fund will be replenished by 829.2 billion rubles, which the Ministry of Finance bought on the market as part of its currency operations for 2017.

The Reserve Fund and the National Welfare Fund were established in 2008.

The NWF, unlike the Reserve Fund, was not originally envisaged to cover the state budget deficit, but should contribute to a stable pension provision for Russians. At the end of 2016, the head of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, Tatyana Golikova, reported that in 2017 the Reserve Fund will be fully exhausted and the government will switch to using the funds of the NWF. Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov also said that the Reserve Fund will be exhausted in 2017.

Source: DW.