Russia executes federal budget at deficit of 389 bln rubles in Jan-Nov, 0.2% of GDP - Finance Ministry

MOSCOW. Dec 9 (Interfax) - Russia executed the federal budget at a deficit of 389 billion rubles, or 0.2% of GDP, in January-November 2024, according to the Finance Ministry's preliminary data published in its monthly brief.

The Finance Ministry continues to expect a deficit of 3.296 trillion rubles in 2024, or 1.7% of GDP, meaning that the deficit could total 2.9 trillion rubles in December.

The ministry's preliminary estimate indicates that the deficit totaled 220 billion rubles in January-October. The Federal Treasury later published data indicating a surplus of 124.2 billion rubles.

The Finance Ministry had previously raised the estimate for the budget surplus 3.4-fold to 578.5 billion rubles in 9M from 169 billion rubles owing to recalculating expenses.

Federal budget revenues rose 25.8% year-on-year to 32.65 trillion rubles in January-November 2024.

Expenditures increased 23.7% to 33.39 trillion rubles.

Non-oil and gas revenues rose 25.8% to 22 trillion 309 billion rubles. Revenues from turnover taxes, including VAT of 11.967 trillion rubles, increased 16.6% in 11M to exceed the planned level, the Finance Ministry said.

Oil and gas revenues rose 25.7% to 10.341 trillion rubles predominately owing to the rise in prices for Russian oil. Baseline oil and gas revenues totaled 9.1 trillion rubles.

The government has obtained the right to bypass parliament and raise overall federal budget spending by up to 1.5 trillion rubles in 2024. Consequently, the deficit should widen to an estimated 3.296 trillion rubles, or 1.7% of GDP, for the year. The budget initially envisaged a deficit of 1.595 trillion rubles, or 0.9% of GDP, which was increased to 2.12 trillion rubles, or 1.1% of GDP, in the spring.