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Russia’s Finance Ministry plans to reach deficit-free budget in 2019

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MOSCOW, December 28. /TASS/. Russia’s Finance Ministry plans to reach a deficit-free budget in 2019 with the oil price of $45 per barrel.

"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 (oil price)," 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 - TASS) "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.

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