Russia’s Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said at a government meeting that .the country's federal budget deficit will not exceed 2% of GDP in 2017.
"We do not expect this year’s budget to exceed 2% of GDP, which is lower than we initially planned," he said, adding that "the planned figure is 2.5%.
He also noted that Russia’s federal budget deficit amounted to 0.3% of GDP in nine months of this year. "Budget revenues reached 16.7% of GDP in the period, which is an increase of 1.7 percentage points compared with the previous year, due to a rise in oil and gas revenues of 1 percentage point amid the oil price standing at an average of $50.6 per barrel, and a surge of non-oil and gas revenues of 0.7 percentage points due to tax revenues," TASS cited the official as saying.
Siluanov also stressed that Russia’s non-oil and gas budget deficit for nine months of 2017 hit the lowest level in five years of 6.8% of GDP.
According to him, the Russian National Wealth Fund volume will reach 3.7 trillion rubles ($62.51 bln) or about 4% of GDP.
The finance minister noted that the budget rule and the Russian budget for the next three years take into account the possibility of replenishing reserves, which are necessary due to dependence on the raw material component and oil and gas revenues.
