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Nine out of ten rubles planned for Russia’s national projects in 2019 spent on time. At the end of 2019, 91.4% of funds allocated toward the national projects had been spent, the Ministry of Finance reports. Unspent funds, amounting to RUB150bn ($2.4bn), were rolled over to 2020.
“91.4% is a surprisingly strong figure,” BMB said in a note, “considering that at the end of September the government had spent just 52% of the year’s funds. At the beginning of December, this figure stood at 73%.”
Poor implementation of the projects drew sharp rebuke from high-ranking officials. Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko called the situation a “complete disgrace,” while Putin said it demanded a restructuring of the whole system of governance.
The government appears to have heard the message and responded accordingly. In the final weeks of 2019, it spent roughly RUB300bn ($4.9bn) of a total RUB1.6 trillion ($26bn). The irony, of course, is that while the government explained poor implementation by noting that officials wanted to spend the funds carefully, the burst in catch-up spending was likely not the most efficient.
The issue of under-spending, furthermore, did not just concern the national projects. At the end of 2019, the government had underspent RUB1.45 trillion ($23.5bn) of the budget, or 7.5% of the year’s allocated outlays.
51 RUSSIA Country Report February 2020 www.intellinews.com
