Page 83 - RusRPTSept22

6.1.1 Budget dynamics - results
The Russian budget’s energy and non-energy income grow despite problems created by the enemies and the envious, President Vladimir Putin said on August 24. "Despite problems which our enemies and the envious are trying to create, the budget is replenished at the required rate, oil and gas, and, what is most pleasing, non-energy income has also increased by 24% lately, I think," Putin said. He added that Russia's economic figures are stabilising despite persisting medium-term risks.
Russia’s budget is still in profit over the first half of this year and Russia’s debt was reduced by a third, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on August 24.
The Russian budget performance is “decent” , the prime minister said. "Despite the strongest external pressure either on individual companies or the economy of our country at large, results are decent overall," the Prime Minister said.
The budget was in a 1% of GDP surplus in the first quarter which fell to about 0.5% of GDP surplus in the second quarter after energy exports started to be affected by sanctions. Oil and gas revenues fell sharply in July after Gazprom reduced flows of gas to Europe by 60% and then restricted them again in July so only 20% of the total capacity of Nord Stream 1 is now being used. That put the month on month budget in July into deficit, but overall the budget is still in the black for the first half of this year.
Revenues increased by almost a quarter in the first half of this year in annual terms and totalled more than RUB14 trillion ($233.9bn).
Expenditure was slightly above RUB12.5 trillion ($208.9bn) and remained at the same level as during the first six months of the last year, Mishustin said.
That left Russia with a modest surplus of RUB1.5 trillion ($25bn) or circa 1.5% GDP.
Russia has also reduced its sovereign foreign debt by one third during the first six months of this year, Mishustin added.
"The amount of the state foreign debt contracted by one third. This is an important component to support the budget system balance," Mishustin said.
In April Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said he expected Russia to end this year with a 2% of GDP deficit as most of the social spending support for the economy will be back loaded into spending in the fourth quarter. Some economists expect the deficit to be less and closer to 1% thanks to the extraordinarily high oil and gas prices.
Russian federal budget revenues fell sharply in July, largely due to the dramatic drop in gas flows to Europe and FX effects, the Bank of Finland institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT) reported on August 19 in its weekly update.
83 RUSSIA Country Report September 2022 www.intellinews.com