The Russian authorities began to “virtually” sell foreign currency from reserves: the volume of funds denominated in the currencies of unfriendly countries began to decline, despite the blocking of these funds by Western countries. This is evidenced by the statistics of the National Wealth Fund (NWF), which was published by the Ministry of Finance.
Attention to the reduction in the currency positions of unfriendly countries was drawn by VPost , which calls such sales "virtual": the Russian authorities have no real access to these funds, but they report as if they were able to sell part of these reserves on the market and convert them into rubles. As of August 1, 2022, the Ministry of Finance estimated the volume of the NWF at 12.155 trillion rubles, or 9.1% of the country's projected GDP for the current year.
Over the month, Russian reserves increased by 1.38 trillion rubles, a month earlier, the Ministry of Finance estimated the volume of the NWF at 10.774 trillion rubles. At the same time, in dollar terms, the volumes decreased by $12.36 billion and amounted to $198.26 billion. yuan. At the same time, 50.872 billion euros were in the accounts of the NWF a month ago, and at the beginning of June even more – 51.585 billion. , thus the authorities partially realize foreign currency from the Fund.
Also in the Russian reserves is about 554.91 tons of gold and 256.6 million rubles. In addition, part of the funds (528.94 billion rubles) is on the deposits of VEB.RF, in bonds of foreign countries – $ 3 billion, another 1.48 trillion rubles are invested in Sberbank shares, 65.54 billion – in Aeroflot shares , 50 billion – "Dom.RF".
The head of the Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, also spoke about the "virtual" conversion of Russia's foreign exchange reserves. During the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Nabiullina argued that this method would not affect inflation: it was about financing the budget deficit with the help of money emission issued against blocked reserves. At the same time, the head of the Central Bank admitted that there is no real sale of currency from reserves during the “virtual conversion”.