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National Funds Rising

Russia's oil wealth Reserve Fund rose to 1.86 trillion rubles ($61.4 billion) on Feb. 1, compared with 811.5 billion rubles a month earlier, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday.

The figures indicated that the fund, established to insure the budget against oil price shocks, had received a one-off injection of cash in January after the government ran a fiscal surplus in 2011, as earlier flagged by officials.

The National Welfare Fund, mandated to cover the deficit in Russia's state pensions scheme, grew slightly in the past month to 2.68 trillion rubles ($88.33 billion) from 2.79 trillion rubles ($86.8 billion) in the month to Feb. 1.

(Reuters)

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