PM: Russia must understand how Crimea accession changes budget

MOSCOW, Apr 18 (PRIME) -- The Russian government might change its spending limit if it macroeconomic conditions, like the Crimea’s accession, change, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Friday, RIA Novosti reported.

“If the conditions change significantly, we have to adjust the set of decisions which we apply, or else they will not reach the goals,” Medvedev said.

“This is why today we have to understand: did the economic conditions change to a degree large enough to change the budget rule. For instance, did the Crimea accession change economic conditions?”

On Thursday, President Vladimir Putin called on the government to postpone changing the budget spending limit, saying that the global economic environment is too risky.

Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said that spending limit changes must correspond to economic cycles.

“We must not forget that this is not solely an important safety element of the fiscal part of the budget but an important element of smoothing out cyclical movements, a strong counter-cyclical mechanism which may cool an excessively heated growing economy or, with a declining economy, if there is a gap between real growth and the potential one, and there is a gap now, it must fill it with stimulating measures,” Ulyukayev said.

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