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RUSSIA'S ECONOMY

Russia’s Reserve Fund to be fully spent in 2017 — draft budget

In particular, the Finance Ministry plans to spend 1.15 trillion rubles ($18.4 bln) from the Reserve Fund and 659 bln rubles ($10.5 bln) from the National Wealth Fund in 2017

© Dmitriy Rogulin/TASS

MOSCOW, October 12. /TASS/. The Russia’s Reserve Fund will be fully spent in 2017, according to the draft budget for 2017-2019 prepared by the Finance Ministry and posted on the legal information website.

RUSSIA'S ECONOMY

In particular, the Finance Ministry plans to spend 1.15 trillion rubles ($18.4 bln) from the Reserve Fund and 659 bln rubles ($10.5 bln) from the National Wealth Fund (NWF) in 2017, the document says. The Ministry plans to spend 1.14 trillion rubles ($18.1 bln) from the NWF in 2018 and 136.9 bln rubles in 2019 ($2.2 bln) to cover the budget deficit.

The Reserve Fund declined by 2.5% to 2.04 trillion rubles ($32.5 bln) in September 2016, the Finance Ministry said earlier. The National Wealth Fund dropped 2.2% to 4.62 trillion rubles ($73.5 bln) in the same period.

Borrowings

The draft also says that the Russian Finance Ministry wants to increase the program of external borrowing in 2017 to $7 bln, and $3 bln annually in 2018-2019.

Domestic government borrowings will be equal to 1.05 trillion rubles ($16.8 bln) yearly in 2017-2019, the document says.

The upper limit of the foreign national debt is planned at the level of $53.6 bln as of January 1, 2018, $52.8 bln as of January 1, 2019, and $53.6 bln - as of January 1, 2020, the draft budget says.

The Russian government may take decisions next year to float Eurobonds with par value up to $4 bln within the framework of exchange for other issues of Russian government securities denominated in foreign currency by agreement with their holders.

Such decisions may be taken for purposes of reducing the state foreign debt and state debt servicing expenses in 2017 and in 2018-2019 planning period, the document says.

Budget deficit

Russia’s budget deficit is projected in the amount of 2.7 trillion rubles ($43 bln) in 2017.

Total revenues of the federal budget will be 13.4 trillion rubles ($213.4 bln) in the next year. Expenses will amount to 16.2 trillion rubles ($258 bln).

Federal budget deficit is planned to gradually decline from 2017 to 2019. The draft budget provides for deficit of 2 trillion rubles ($31.8 bln) in 2018 and 1.1 trillion rubles ($17.5 bln) in 2019. Revenues may amount to 14 trillion rubles ($222.9 bln) in 2018 and 14.8 trillion rubles ($235.7 bln) in 2019, the Ministry said in the document.

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