Russia ended 2024 with record budget deficit, The Moscow Times reports
Pravda Ukraine
Russia concluded 2024 with its largest budget deficit in recent years, amounting to RUB 3.5 trillion (about US$35 million).
Source: The Moscow Times, citing data from the Russian Ministry of Finance
Details: Preliminary estimates indicate that the Ministry of Finance’s year-end expenditures exceeded the plan by RUB 800 billion (about US$8 billion). Total spending reached RUB 40.2 trillion (about US$403 billion), marking a 24% increase compared to 2023.
Accelerating inflation at the end of the year contributed to a 26% rise in non-oil-and-gas revenues, totalling RUB 25.6 trillion (about US$257 billion). Under fiscal rules, these funds were allocated to cover expenditures.
Oil and gas revenues also grew by 26% to RUB 11.1 trillion (about US$111 billion) but fell short of expectations, contributing an additional RUB 200 billion (about US$2 billion) to the deficit, which reached RUB 3.5 trillion (about US$35 billion).
This marks the worst deficit in recent years, compared to RUB 3.3 trillion (about US$33 billion) in 2022 and RUB 3.2 trillion (about US$32 billion) in 2023. Over three years of Russo-Ukrainian war, Russia’s cumulative budget deficit has reached RUB 10 trillion (about US$100 billion).
As a share of GDP, the deficit decreased to 1.7%, compared to 2.1% and 1.9% in the previous two years.
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