Russia's Finance Ministry expects regional budget surplus to continue in 2022

MOSCOW. July 7 (Interfax) - Russia's regional budgets in 2022 are expected to be executed at a surplus, Deputy Finance Minister Vladimir Kolychev said during a meeting of the Federation Council committee on budget and financial markets.

"Sufficient resources on the whole have been allocated to the regions. Regional budgets are being executed steadily. In the first half of the year, the surplus exceeds 1.3 trillion rubles. At the end of the year, the surplus in general regional budgets is forecast to be the same," Kolychev said.

As previously reported, the income of Russia's constituent entities' consolidated budgets in 2021 was 17.5463 trillion rubles, and expenses were 16.8856 trillion rubles, with a surplus of 660.7 billion rubles.

Kolychev noted that the level of debt of the Russian regions remains stable at 2.5 trillion rubles, which is about 22% of the subjects' own income. "At the same time, the structure is changing in favor of reducing commercial debt. In this regard, the key task for the regions, together with the federal center, is probably to manage wisely the current resources and additional income that are currently being received," Kolychev said.

Russia's 2022 federal budget deficit will be 1.665 trillion rubles, or 1.2% of GDP, while a source familiar with the draft outlook for the budget, tax and customs tariff policy for 2023 and for the planning period of 2024 and 2025, has told Interfax, as prepared by the Finance Ministry.