Russian regions' budget surplus tops 1 trln rubles in Jan-Sept - Siluanov

MOSCOW. Oct 3 (Interfax) - The consolidated budget surplus of Russia's regions exceeded 1 trillion rubles in the first nine months of 2022, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said at hearings on the draft budget in the Federation Council.

"We reduced the level of [Russian regions'] commercial debt, it now amounts to 7% of their revenues, and budget loans have been restructured. All this makes it possible to stably execute regional budgets," Siluanov said.

"If we take the execution of regions' budgets in the period since the start of the year, for the nine months the surplus is more than 1 trillion rubles. We have never had this, and this is good, because this is a good reserve [as] substantial obligations need to be fulfilled before the end of the year and next year," Siluanov said.

It was reported earlier that Russian regions' consolidated budget revenues totaled 17.546 trillion rubles in 2021, spending amounted to 16.886 trillion rubles and the surplus was 660.7 billion rubles.