Putin: Russia’s budget surplus at 660 bln rbl in July–September

SOCHI, Oct 5 (PRIME) -- Russia’s surplus budget has exceeded 660 billion rubles in July–September, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday at the Valdai Discussion Club.

“We are doing fine, and I have all reason to believe that we will be fine in the future. We had a surplus of more than 660 billion rubles in the third quarter of this year,” he said.

Budget deficit is to stand at 1% in 2023 and to remain the same in 2024–2025. Unemployment has stabilized at a record low level of 3%, while real incomes have grown by over 12%, he added.

Russia also doubled its defense spending to 6% of GDP from 3% of GDP, he said, adding that the government was fulfilling all the development plans and all social obligations meaning it does not “spend too much money on guns and forgets about butter,” he said.

Restructuring of Russia’s economy has started naturally.

“The things that we earlier received from the European countries through imports, they have closed much for us, and we had to invest in the development of agricultural production in our country just like we did in 2014 after imposing some restrictions on the purchase of Western or mainly European agricultural goods,” Putin said.

The country managed to overcome all the problems that emerged from the sanctions, it has remained stable, and should to maintain this trend, he added.

(99.4555 rubles – U.S. $1)

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