"We see a lot of proposals - let's increase investment, let's decrease taxes - but we would like to see an attempt to lay down the whole framework," John Litwack, author of the bank's latest report on the Russian economy, told Reuters.
Russia is running a current account surplus due to its booming oil and gas sectors. Much of the windfall is stashed in a special stabilisation fund set up in late 2003 to protect the budget against oil price fluctuations.
The World Bank expects the fund to reach $52 billion by the end of 2005 if the oil price stays above $60 a barrel.
Russian policymakers are often at loggerheads over the use of oil revenues with Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov clashing with his liberal economy and finance ministers over a proposal to lower value-added tax to boost economic growth.
"It is becoming apparent that a lot of what Russia is now accumulating is not just a temporary reserve," said Litwack, the bank's leading Russia economist.
"Some of this money needs to be in a highly liquid fund to protect the budget against fluctuations but some of the money needs to go somewhere else."
Russia's stabilisation fund has not yet been invested and has only been used so far to repay $18 billion in debts to the Paris Club of sovereign lenders and the International Monetary Fund this year. "Creating a fund for future generations and making some longer term investments with higher returns makes sense," Litwack said.
Litwack's comments lent support to a proposal by the head of Russia's financial regulator, Oleg Vyugin, to channel oil revenues into the country's undercapitalised pensions system.
The World Bank report also said Russia's economic boom was slowing as a result of the rouble's real appreciation - which has eroded the competitive advantage created by the 1998 devaluation and default.
However, the report praised the Russian government and the Central Bank for pursuing a prudent monetary policy and said that investment climate in Russia was improving.
The IMF has criticised the central bank for its policy of keeping a nominal exchange rate stable by buying dollars and urged it to let the rouble appreciate. But Litwack disagreed: "We tend to think that what the Central Bank is doing is good."
The report expressed concerns about a 30 percent spending hike in the 2006 budget but said that government expenditure overall remained within bounds of reason.
"It is not a disaster yet. What we are worried about is the future. There are certain lobbies that support very sharp increases in government spending that we think will have a destabilising effect on the Russian economy," Litwack said.