Importance In the conditions of unstable geopolitical environment, significant reduction in oil and gas revenues, and the volatility of national financial and credit systems the sovereign wealth funds serve as one of the major anti-crisis tools. The issues of reasonable and proper use and the long-term preservation of the National Welfare Fund (NWF), which aims at balancing the budget of the Russian Pension Fund during crisis, assume special relevance. Under the crisis, the National Welfare Fund ensures an acceptable level of liquidity in the credit system serves as one of the main sources of investment in the Russian Federation economy. Objectives The goals of the research is the evaluation of the capacities of the National Welfare Fund in fulfilling the tasks entrusted to it, the identification of challenges obstructing the efficient management of the Fund resources, and the development of proposals for its use optimization to promote the Russian economy's investment potential. Methods On the basis of the principles of dialectical cognition, analysis and synthesis, and with the help of formalization, comparison, induction and deduction techniques, we have analyzed the peculiarities of the NWF functioning and determined the criteria and opportunities for the effective use of the Fund's assets for investment projects. The article substantiates the necessity to clarify the objectives of the National Welfare Fund. We provide an evaluation of possibilities of increasing the utilization of the Fund's assets. The paper points out that ensuring the liquidity of the Fund's assets, maximizing return on investments at adequate risk level, and socio-economic efficiency of investment projects should be the main criteria for the efficiency of the use of the Fund's assets to stimulate the investment potential of the economy. Results The findings can be used by public authorities while elaborating organizational, legal and methodological bases of the NWF management. Conclusions and Relevance We conclude that effective use of the Fund to finance investment projects necessitates clear definition of the composition of priority sectors of the economy, setting the maximum allowable limit for the use of the Fund's assets for investment purposes in the long run, establishing an effective mechanism for selecting investment projects and developing an adequate investment strategy giving due consideration to financial and macroeconomic risks.
Keywords: budget reserves, Sovereign wealth Fund, Reserve Fund, National Welfare Fund, federal budget, investment development, economy
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