Russia is increasing foreign-currency sales from the National Wealth Fund to address a growing budget deficit after oil and gas revenues plunged to their lowest level since January 2023.

Russia’s Central Bank, acting on Finance Ministry instructions, will sell yuan on the Moscow Exchange at a rate of 9.8 billion rubles ($124 million) per day from July 7 to Aug. 6, an increase of 2.5 billion rubles ($31 million) per day compared to June.

This marks the second time in 2025 that the Kremlin has dipped into the NWF a sovereign reserve built largely from oil and gas revenues, to manage fiscal shortfalls.

But the fund’s remaining liquidity is shrinking fast.

At the start of July, the NWF’s liquid assets stood at 4.1 trillion rubles ($52.6 billion), including 1.3 trillion rubles in yuan and gold acquired during last year’s oil-price windfall.

Analysts at MMI, a Telegram channel that analyzes Russian and global microstatistics, estimate that, at the current rate of spending, those reserves could be depleted within 14 months.

Should oil prices drop to $50 due to an OPEC+ output increase, depletion could come even sooner, potentially forcing spending cuts and triggering a recession, the analysts warned.