Medvedev: Russian regions’ budget deficit to halve by 2019

Russian regions’ budget deficit will go down almost twofold by 2019 compared with 2016, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said.

"As a result the situation around regional budgets is going to improve on the whole. Their total deficit is to decrease almost twofold by 2019 compared with this year. The financial aid to prop up Russian regions will be increased by 9% to 1.6 trillion rubles ($26.4 bln) in 2017," TASS cited Medvedev as saying.

"Next year the aid to regions will be increased by around 9% compared with this year, which has been quite challenging within a tough budget. The total amount of inter-budget transfers is planned at the level of 1.6 trillion rubles," hу added.