Budget amendments won't require higher govt borrowing, NWF could be tapped for 447 bln rubles - Siluanov

MOSCOW. May 6 (Interfax) - The budget amendments proposed by the Russian Finance Ministry in the spring session will not require an increase in government borrowing, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said.

He said 447 billion rubles from the National Wealth Fund (NWF) could be used this year.

"We have made budget amendments related to changes in the price of oil. Oil and gas revenues were reduced by 2.6 trillion rubles. Non-oil and gas revenues were increased. Overall, the deficit increased to last year's level," he told reporters.

"You may recall our National Welfare Fund was supposed to be replenished. In the first three months, we increased it by more than 200 billion rubles. Going by the Economic Development Ministry's forecast data, which we used as the basis when updating the federal budget, we expect that we will tap the NWF for 447 billion rubles overall for the year," Siluanov said.

"No additional borrowing or increase in spending in excess of non-oil and gas revenue growth are expected. This means that borrowing on the market will not increase either," he said.

He said the key thing in these adjustments is that when drafting them the Finance Ministry complied with the fiscal rule - spending increased by the level of growth in non-oil and gas revenues. "That growth was 829 billion rubles," Siluanov said.

Also, when asked whether the amendments to this year's budget would be pro-inflationary, Siluanov said: "Of course not. We spent only as much non-oil and gas revenue as we received. You might view pro-inflationary factors in the context of using NWF money. But I assure you that the 447 billion rubles of the NWF will not affect the overall dynamics of M2 [money supply]. Moreover, money supply dynamics today are much slower than expected," he said.

The 2025 budget had planned to reduce the use of the NWF's resources this year to a symbolic 600 million rubles. Its use is not envisaged in subsequent years. The plan was to replenish it by 1.8 trillion rubles. Siluanov said earlier that the NWF might not be replenished as much as planned in 2025.