Fin minister sees Russia’s 2017 budget deficit above 2% of GDP

MOSCOW, Sep 1 (PRIME) -- Russia’s budget deficit will amount to about 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) or slightly more in 2017, below 3.2% envisaged by the budget, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told reporters on Friday.

“We will have a budget adjustment in autumn this year. We have some tasks that we are to achieve and that will demand additional spending, this is why budget deficit will amount to about 2% of GDP, maybe slightly more,” Siluanov said.

He also said that the ministry sees enough funds of the budget and does not plan to spend the Reserve Fund to cover the budget deficit.

“For now, we are accumulating our reserves. This year we plan to allocate slightly more than 600 billion rubles of reserves. We forecasted a 623 billion rubles increase, but we are adjusting the figure now. But we still plan to accumulate reserves, and they will act as a source to cover budget deficit in 2018,” he said.

He added that starting from 2019 the ministry plans to stop spending from the Reserve Fund.

On Thursday, Economic Development Minister Maxim Oreshkin said that the ministry expects Russia’s budget deficit to amount to about 2% or less in 2017 and to gradually contract to 0.8% in 2020.

(58.5454 rubles – U.S. $1)

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