Russia's Reserve Fund decreased by 1.8% to 2.238 trillion rubles ($76.87 bln) from 2.242 trillion rubles ($77 bln) in November, the country's Finance Ministry said on Tuesday.

As of December 1, the Russian National Prosperity Fund stood at 2.77 trillion rubles ($95.1 bln), up 2.1% from 2.712 trillion rubles ($93.1 bln) on November 1.

The Reserve Fund was set up to cushion the federal budget against a fall in oil prices, and the National Prosperity Fund is intended to help the government carry out pension reforms.

As of October 1, the Finance Ministry channeled a total of 2.023 trillion rubles ($67 bln) from the Reserve Fund to balance the federal budget, including 309.24 billion rubles ($10.3 billion) in September.

In line with budget policy guidelines for 2010-2012 approved by the government in July, a total of 3.028 trillion rubles ($95.5 billion), or 7.9% of the country's GDP, will be spent on covering the budget deficit this year.

Russia's Reserve Fund is expected to fall to 1.55 trillion rubles ($50 billion) by the end of the year and run out entirely in 2010, while the National Welfare Fund will fall to 2.8 trillion rubles ($91 billion) by the end of the year and down to 94 billion rubles ($3 billion) by the end of 2012.

MOSCOW, December 1 (RIA Novosti)