Page 108 - RusRPTJun24

RUB1.5 trillion in 2024, which is within the framework of the plan. The budget law stipulates a deficit of 1.595 trillion, or 0.9% of GDP, for the current year.
"The dynamics to fulfil the budget are better than in previous years. The budget deficit is currently expected to be 1.4-1.5 trillion. The parametres for execution are within the framework of the planned expectations," Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said in an interview with Interfax.
While it didn’t break out the monthly totals, Bloomberg calculations show the budget swung into a deficit of RUB877bn in April after a surplus in March.
Revenues of the Russian budget amounted to RUB11.684 trillion ($127bn) in the period, which is 50.1% higher than in the previous year.
Russia’s federal budget revenues from the oil and gas industry showed a significant increase to 4.2 trillion ($45.7bn) in the January-April 2024 period, 82.2% higher than in the same period last year, the country’s Finance Ministry announced.
The country's non-oil and natural gas revenues increased by 36.8%, reaching 7.5 trillion during the same period, the ministry said in a statement.
Expenditures rose by 21.5% to RUB13.168 trillion ($143bn).
The growth in the deficit and acceleration of spending was due to the Finance Ministry front loading end of year spending again, but spreading it out over the first quarter. MinFin typically does a fifth of its entire year spending in December, but since last year has tried to get some of that spending out of the way early.
Last January, the deficit blew out to a whopping RUB1.7 trillion as a lot of the end of year spending was moved to the very start of the year. This time round, MinFin is spreading the early spending over several months, and it picked up in February-April.
"Accelerated expenditure financing in February-April 2024 is related to fast conclusion of contracts and advance financing on certain contracted expenditures among other things," the ministry noted.
The strong performance of the budget means that Siluanov says the budget is on course to hit the full year target of 0.9% of GDP, or just under RUB1.5bn, part of which will be funded by tapping the National Welfare Fund (NWF) again. Currently, there is around RUB4.8 trillion in Russia’s rainy day fund.
"The dynamics to fulfil the budget are better than in previous years. The budget deficit is currently expected to be RUB1.4-1.5 trillion. The parameters for execution are within the framework of the planned expectations," Russian
108 RUSSIA Country Report June 2024 www.intellinews.com