MOSCOW, May 23 (RIA Novosti) - Amendments to the law on the Stabilization Fund that would allow it to be used for investment in "blue chips" could be adopted only in 2007, the economics minister said Tuesday.
"We have an agreement that part of the Stabilization Fund will be invested in 'blue chips,' but we still have to adopt the [new] law," said Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref, adding that his ministry would be involved in developing the investment program.
Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov said on Monday that the Stabilization Fund would grow to about 2 trillion rubles ($74 bln) by the end of 2006, and that the government might invest about 10% of the fund's money in shares of private companies, with other investments going into state securities.
But, Gref said, "It is too early to say whether [investments] would be 10% or more or less than that."
The Stabilization Fund, established in 2004 to accumulate windfall profits from oil prices above a cutoff of $27 per barrel and hold back inflation by neutralizing an influx of petrodollars, is widely seen as a tool to ensure macroeconomic stability, create conditions for the launch of structural reforms, reduce economic dependence on foreign markets, and diversify the country's economy.
Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak said Monday the Finance Ministry planned to begin investing resources from the Stabilization Fund in foreign financial securities in the next few weeks.
