Russia's borrowing plan for 2023 could be adjusted if trends are favorable - Siluanov

MOSCOW. Oct 10 (Interfax) - Plans for the volume of borrowing in the domestic market in 2024 could be adjusted if trends are favorable, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said.

"I am not ruling out that if there will be a good trends, just like this year, we can make corrective, adjusted decisions on borrowing next year. In general, our plans are realizable in terms of borrowing, the budget will be provided with sources of financing," he said in an interview with Naila Asker-zadeh on the Rossiya 24 channel.

In late September, Siluanov said that the program of domestic borrowing for 2023 will be reduced by about 1 trillion rubles amid the growing appetite of banks investing in OFZ for the rates at which government bonds are placed. "We have consulted with the Finance Ministry and the government and decided to limit borrowing this year. To reduce the program by something like a trillion rubles. Let them [banks] sit now and lend to the economy, not the budget," Siluanov said. In 2023, the borrowing plan was 3.5 trillion: 2.5 trillion provided for by the borrowing program, with amendments made to the Budget Code allowing another 1 trillion rubles to be borrowed to substitute use of National Wealth Fund resources.

The minister said that the reduction of the borrowing plan this year is possible due to over-fulfillment of the plan on oil and gas revenues for the budget. "We have exceeded our plans for oil and gas revenues, and in this regard, it seems to me that it is absolutely economically justified if we finance our expenditures at the expense of oil and gas revenues without resorting to borrowing in the market and additionally without incentivizing growth of interest rates in the economy," Siluanov said at the time.

According to the draft budget, OFZ placement will total 4.068 trillion rubles in 2024, 4.363 trillion rubles in 2025 and 4.864 trillion rubles in 2026.