Russia closes 2024 with budget deficit of 3.485 trln rubles or 1.7% of GDP - Finance Ministry

MOSCOW. Jan 21 (Interfax) - Russia's federal budget in 2024 was executed with a deficit of 3.485 trillion rubles or 1.7% of GDP, the Finance Ministry reported in its monthly brief, citing preliminary data.

The budget law for 2024 initially targeted a deficit of 1.595 trillion rubles or 0.9% of GDP, but last spring it was raised to 2.120 trillion rubles or 1.1% of GDP. Later, after the government secured the right to increase overall federal budget spending in 2024 by up to 1.5 trillion rubles without passing these changes through parliament, the deficit was projected at 3.296 trillion rubles or 1.7% of GDP.

Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said at the end of December that the final budget execution figures would fall within the anticipated 1.7% of GDP, and on January 17 he reaffirmed this.

The deficit was 389 billion rubles or 0.2% of GDP in the first 11 months of 2024, according to preliminary data from the Finance Ministry. The Federal Treasury later reported the deficit at 91.071 billion rubles. Based on these figures, the deficit in December alone was 3.096 trillion or 3.394 trillion rubles, respectively.

The primary structural deficit, adjusted for the balance of budget and intergovernmental loans, was 2.956 trillion rubles or 1.5% of GDP in 2024. The non-oil and gas deficit was 7.3% of GDP.

Federal budget revenues rose 26% year-on-year to 36.707 trillion rubles in 2024. Non-oil and gas revenues increased by 26% to 25.576 trillion rubles, with value-added tax revenue up 16% to 13.523 trillion. Oil and gas revenues grew by 26.2% to 11.131 trillion rubles. Baseline oil and gas revenues totalled 9.831 trillion rubles and additional revenues amounted to 1.3 trillion rubles.

Spending increased by 24.2% to 40.192 trillion rubles in 2024.

However, the Finance Ministry said that the increase in spending at the end of the year funded by additional oil and gas revenues was partly intended to pay advances on some expenses budgeted for 2025.

"This will ensure increased flexibility in managing the structure of maximum budget allocations in the current year, including in light of the possible increase in federal budget obligations that depend on the value of the key rate as a result of the Bank of Russia raising its forecast trajectory in 2025," the ministry said.

The federal budget for 2025 targets a deficit of 1.173 trillion rubles or 0.5% of GDP.