MOSCOW, October 17 (RIA Novosti) - Investors withdrew $33 billion from Russia in August-September, Russia's finance minister said on Friday.

"In August-September, investors took a total of $33 billion out of Russia," Alexei Kudrin said, speaking in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament.

He said the amount represented dollars that investors had bought from the Russian Central Bank for rubles and then taken out of the country.

Russia's financial system has been affected by a global credit crunch which started in the U.S. and quickly spread to Asia and Europe leading to record losses on Russia's financial markets, rising interest rates and a liquidity shortage.

The minister also said national welfare funds would be used to buy stock in Russian companies.

"Next week, we will start investing 175 billion rubles [$6.7 billion] from the National Welfare Fund [into buying stock]," said Kudrin.

The State Duma approved last week anti-crisis packages worth a total of $86 billion. The government earmarked $50 billion of budget funds to banks and firms to refinance foreign debt, and some $36 billion to key banks in subordinated loans.