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Finance Minister hopes Russia’s budget deficit to be close to 0.5% of GDP this year

MOSCOW, December 23, 21:39 /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s federal budget deficit may be at about 0.5-0.6 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2013, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told reporters on Monday.

Proceeding from the Finance Ministry’s estimates, this year’s federal budget deficit will amount to 400 billion roubles, while revenues will make up 12.9 trillion roubles and expenditures - 13.3 trillion roubles (USD 1 = RUB 32.95).

“This year’s deficit is projected at 0.5-0.6 percent of the GDP,” Siluanov said, adding, “I am hopeful that it will be close to a half percent.”

According to the minister, this year’s petroleum deficit gains 10.2 percent of the GDP. In the future, the ministry hopes for the decrease of the indicator to 9.4 percent in 2014 and to 8.4 percent in 2016.

Moreover, the Finance Ministry plans “to return to the accumulation of money in the Reserve Fund” already in 2014, Siluanov said. The finance minister also pointed to the need of tougher budget discipline.

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