The federal budget of the Russian Federation in January-February of the current year was executed with a deficit of 2.58 trillion rubles. This was announced on Monday, March 6, by the press service of the Russian Ministry of Finance on its site.
It is noted that the income of the Russian budget for the specified period amounted to 3.16 trillion rubles, and the expenditure – 5.74 trillion rubles.
“According to preliminary estimates, the volume of federal budget revenues in January-February 2023 amounted to 3163 billion rubles, which is 25% lower than the volume of revenues in January-February 2022. The volume of budget expenditures for the same period amounted to 5,744 billion rubles, exceeding the figures for the same period last year by 52%.
Earlier, on March 2, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that the tax revenues of the Russian budget for January-February 2023 exceeded expectations and amounted to 5 trillion rubles, which is higher than the same indicator last year. He admitted that those who predicted an imbalance in the budget system of the Russian Federation would be very upset because of the large budget revenues. Siluanov also noted that at the moment the Treasury is distributing these revenues by levels of the budget system.
In addition, the minister said that the increase in the deficit at the beginning of the year is primarily due to the decline in oil and gas revenues due to the low average price of Urals.
On January 10, Siluanov reported that the federal budget deficit in 2022 amounted to 2.3% of GDP. Russian President Vladimir Putin also announced this in the same month.
In November 2022, the State Duma approved the federal budget of Russia for 2023-2025, which provides for a gradual reduction in the budget deficit from 2% to 0.7% of GDP. According to the law, Russia’s budget revenues for 2023 will amount to 26.13 trillion rubles (17.4% of GDP), expenditures – 29.056 trillion (19.4% of GDP). The document provides for an increase in revenues to 27.24 trillion rubles in 2024, in 2025 – up to 27.98 trillion, and expenses – up to 29.43 trillion and 29.24 trillion rubles, respectively. For three years, the budget will be in deficit: in 2023, the deficit will be 2% of GDP, in 2024 – 1.4% of GDP, in 2025 – 0.7% of GDP.
The main source of covering the deficit is government borrowing.
