Fin minister says Russia can cut budget spending more in ‘17–19

MOSCOW, Oct 28 (PRIME) -- Russia will cut spending in 2017–2019 in case of low revenue, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told reporters on Friday.

“If we see better conditions, then I think that the Reserve Fund spending must be reduced. In order to, as we used to say, keep budget sustainability. If the conditions are worse, we will prepare proposals for further consolidation. I mean both the revenue and the spending part,” Siluanov said.

The minister said that the ruble has grown less dependent on oil prices. “If the oil prices rise, we will attract more foreign currency to the country, this will influence the exchange rate. But I think that now we see that a direct influence of prices on the exchange rate is falling, (compared with) what it used to be over the past years.”

Russia will continue to upgrade its army in 2017, there is enough money for this in the budget, Siluanov said separately.

“Next year, despite all the difficulties, is the year of continued modernization of our military forces. This is a geopolitical task. This is one of our priority tasks because the president had set the goal of ensuring that 79% of equipment of our army by 2020 is modern. The necessary funds for that have been allocated,” Siluanov said.

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