RF Budget Deficit in 2009 amounted to 5.9% of GDP

 

The main source of balancing the federal budget were the assets of the Reserve Fund, which was used to finance budgetary expenditures in the amount of RUR 2.9648 trillion. The volume of attracted funds from oil and gas sector was calculated basing on the 100% of financial assets approved from budget for 2009, but in reality cash execution of the expenditure share of the federal budget, in our estimates, is no more than 96%, as a result of which the Federal Treasury cash balances were formed. Therefore, we can state that financing of anti-crisis measures in the country without the involvement of external borrowing was possible due to reserves accumulated during the financial and thus, the idea of forming oil and gas assets has fully justified itself and can be recorded as an advantage of fiscal policy.

At the same time, the continuing volatility in the dynamics of the cash execution of expenditure commitments should be noted, which hinders the effective and timely budget execution. In particular, within 11 months of 2009 there was utilized only 82.4% of the estimated annual budget. It is obvious that the traditional transfer expenditures to the last months of the year increases the risk of inflation, which is observed as early as at the beginning of the next year, in this case – 2010.

I.A. Sokolov, Ph.D., Deputy Head of Laboratory for Budget Policy