Russia's federal budget deficit could exceed the planned 2% of GDP this year, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said.
"Right now the size of the deficit is approximately at the level that we factored into the plan. For the year it will be 2-2.5% of GDP. It will be possible to say more precisely in the second half of the year. We have sufficient resources to both carry out planned expenditures and additional ones that will arise in the course of the year," Siluanov told aif.ru.
The deficit was 2.595 trillion rubles in the first half of 2023, according to preliminary data from the Finance Ministry, while the plan for the year is 2.9 trillion rubles. As of July 20, federal budget revenues totalled 12.779 trillion rubles, spending amounted to 16.421 trillion rubles and the deficit was 3.642 trillion rubles, according to the Electronic Budget portal.
The Russian Finance Ministry attributed the growth of the deficit at the beginning of the year in part to accelerated financing of a number of expenditure items in January-February.
