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State Duma approves amendments to 2018 federal budget in first reading

According to the explanatory note to the document, the changes made through those amendments will ensure the balance of the budget in 2018

MOSCOW, November 13. /TASS/. Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) approved amendments to the budget for 2018 and the planned period of 2019-2020 in the first reading at the plenary session on Tuesday.

Amendments envision an increase in total revenues of 1.874 trillion rubles ($27.8 bln) to 18.947 trillion rubles ($281 bln). Total expenditures will go up by 212.7 bln rubles ($3.1 bln) to 16.808 trillion rubles ($249.4 bln). The share of expenditures to GDP will slip by 0.3 percentage points. The surplus of this year’s federal budget will soar by more than four-fold compared with the previous version of the budget to 2.137 trillion rubles ($31.7 bln).

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The projected GDP volume taken into consideration for budget formation for 2018 has been increased from 98.234 trillion rubles ($1.4 trillion) to 101.164 trillion rubles ($1.5 trillion). Inflation outlook budgeted for 2018 has been adjusted from 2.8% to 3.4%.

According to the amendments, oil and gas revenues will soar from 1.582 trillion rubles ($23.5 bln) to 8.817 trillion rubles ($130.9 bln), while extra oil and gas revenues will increased from 2.739 trillion rubles ($40.6 bln) to 4.093 trillion rubles ($60.7 bln).

A total of 6.672 bln rubles ($98.4 mln) is planned to be directed to the government’s reserve fund.

Amendments have been prepared considering execution of the federal budget for January-September period of 2018, as well as considering expected results of Russia’s social and economic development in 2018 and expected budget execution for 2018. According to the explanatory note to the document, the changes made through those amendments will ensure the balance of the budget in 2018. Meanwhile, the document does not envision any changes for 2019 and 2020.

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