According to the results of the current year, the deficit of the federal budget of Russia will be higher than the planned level and will amount to 2% -2.5% of GDP. However, there is no cause for concern, as the country has enough resources for both planned and additional expenses, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on July 25 in an interview with aif.ru.
“For this year, we have no worries, because in general, budget revenues are better than we predicted. I mean income from the non-oil and gas economy. They are about 18% higher than last year. VAT, corporate income tax, personal income tax – all the main revenue sources are in the black,” he said.
In January-February 2023, according to the minister, there were large advance expenses. This is not typical for the beginning of the year and accelerated the implementation of the budget. These expenses were provided in the plan, however, the main expenses mainly fall on the fourth quarter, and not at the beginning of the year. Because of this, many believed that the budget deficit was greatly increased.
“Now the size of the deficit is reaching approximately the levels that we included in the plan. At the end of the year, its size will be 2% -2.5% of GDP. More precisely, it will be possible to say in the second half of the year. We have enough resources to meet the planned expenses, and additional ones that arise during the year,” Siluanov assured.
The head of the Ministry of Finance added that discussions are already underway on the resource provision of tasks for 2024. The government is working on this, discussing measures to fill the budget with sources.
On June 16, Russian Finance Minister Siluanov reported that the best way to finance a possible increase in budget spending could be a redistribution of the “budget pie”. The second and less favorable option is to widen the deficit and raise taxes.
A day earlier, Siluanov said that the Russian economy faces many challenges in the current environment, but the government understands how to respond to them. According to him, the country is successfully coping with the problems that have arisen in connection with the introduction of Western sanctions, and will cope in the future.
