Russia Says to Reach Deficit-Free Budget in 2019

Russia’s Finance Ministry plans to reach a deficit-free budget in 2019 with the oil price of $45 per barrel, Tass reported. “Only two years ago we ran a budget surplus with the oil price of $105 per barrel and in 2016—with $75 per barrel oil price. Our task is to have a deficit-free budget by 2019 with $45 per barrel,” Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said in an interview aired by the Rossiya-24 TV news channel on Wednesday. According to the minister, non-oil and gas budget deficit (the difference between budget expenditures and revenues, excluding those related to oil and gas) “should be around 5% of GDP. In this case we assume that the budget is immune to various fluctuations of international economic environment,” he added. On Monday, the Russian Ministry of Economic Development revised its outlook for industrial production in 2016 to 1% compared to the previous 0.4%. Next year is shaping up to be a much better one for the Russian Federation, it said.