Media: government to freeze nominal budget spending for 3 years

The Russian Finance Ministry’s proposal to freeze the federal budget spending in nominal terms for 3 years was approved on Monday at a meeting with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

The ministry of finance proposed to set the budget spending in 2017-2019 at 15.78 trillion rubles ($246.28 bln) per year, less than the revised volume of spending for 2016.

"No decisions have been made, the finance ministry presented proposals," Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's spokeswoman Natalia Timakova said. But a meeting attendee said that all the meeting participants agreed with the approach, practically approving the proposal.

"The approach was adopted, redistribution within program expenditure articles is possible," another federal official said - the president also agrees with freezing expenditures. The exact figures will be adjusted, the source concluded.

According to the Russian Finance Ministry's proposal, spending on 36 out of 43 state programs (roughly half of the budget) are declining even in nominal value, except retirement costs, economic development and management of public finances (national debt), TASS reports.