Russia's budget deficit not critical, govt debt remains low - Putin

MOSCOW. Sept 3 (Interfax) - Russia's federal budget deficit is not critical, as the country has one of the lowest levels of government debt in the world and the authorities are trying not to overload the market with government borrowing, President Vladimir Putin said.

"We need to not so much economize, we need to rationally spend, determine priorities. You just mentioned the deficit. Yes, there's a deficit, but it's not critical. If you keep in mind that we have one of the lowest government debt figures in the world, then there's nothing critical here. We're trying to act carefully and not overload the financial system, particularly private banks, with borrowing by the government, because then there will be less left for businesses," Putin said at the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF).

He said a delicate policy is needed here. "We are trying to conduct it. And on the whole I think that both the government and the Central Bank are generally managing to navigate between Scylla and Charybdis, and this will lead to the expected effects that we talked about at the very beginning, when starting this process 18 months to two years ago," Putin said.

"Our main objective is to create conditions for private investment. As for the deficit, surplus, this all goes in waves. There was a surplus and we also said that we need to create conditions for private investment. Now there's a deficit. But I'm confident that, gradually, by dealing foremost with the challenge of maintaining healthy macroeconomics, we will solve all these issues," Putin said.

Russia had a federal budget deficit of 6.455 trillion rubles or 2.8% of GDP in the first seven months of 2026, according to preliminary data from the Finance Ministry. The budget law for this year targets a deficit of 3.786 trillion rubles or 1.6% of GDP. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has said that the forecast for the deficit might be raised somewhat.