16 Nov 2016 09:20

2017 budget deficit target should not be adjusted in Duma - PM

MOSCOW. Nov 16 (Interfax) - The difference between the revenue and spending sides of Russia's 2017 budget plan should not be increased in the course of the document's passage by the State Duma, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said.

"The budget has been drafted with a deficit, unfortunately, but the difference between revenues and expenditures amounts to slightly more than 3% of GDP. And we're proceeding from the assumption that this figure should not be revised," Medvedev said on Tuesday at a meeting of the United Russia's party's Duma faction in Moscow.

Instructions from the president and decisions by the Russian government stipulate that the current deficit target must be preserved, Medvedev said.