MOSCOW, July 4 (Itar-Tass) - Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov believes that setting excessively optimistic parameters of the budget forecast Russia may face a deficit growth and the need to use the Reserve Fund in the next budget cycle. Siluanov said about this variant of the situation at a meeting of the Russian government on Thursday.
“Setting today excessively optimistic parameters in the budget, we are running a risk to face a deficit growth and the need to use the Reserve Fund to cover it in the next budget cycle,” the minister said. He explained that this way “we are diminishing our plans to replenish ‘the safety cushion’.”
Speaking on the parameters of the budget, Siluanov noted that “in fact, as Dmitry Anatolyevich /Medvedev/ said in his speech, the parameters of the forecast are worse that those envisaged in the previous budget cycle, a forecast of the GDP growth rate, exports amount and etc was reduced - all those figures, which directly influence the budget revenues.”
“But even this forecast, in our opinion, has some risks,” the finance minister said.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev urged the government to take into account all possible risks in the drafting of the federal budget for 2014-2016. “We are drafting a relevant bill on the federal budget for 2014 and next two years,” he said, opening a meeting of the government. “It is obvious that its main trends are being formed under the direct influence and are outlined in the budget message of the president, the forecasts of socio-economic development until 2030 and the guidelines of the government until 2018,” Medvedev said.
Medvedev recalled that the priorities remain unchanged: the fulfilment of social state commitments, a long-term stability of the pension system, the implementation of major projects, including infrastructure projects, and an efficient management of state financial resources.