MOSCOW, September 13. /TASS/. The budget deficit in the first half of 2017 amounted to about 400 billion rubles ($6.9 bln), or about 1% of GDP, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said at a cabinet meeting on the execution of the federal budget for the first half of 2017.

"The budget deficit is gradually decreasing, in the first half of the year it amounted to about 400 billion rubles, or about 1% of the gross domestic product. I recall that in the first half of 2016 it was 3.6%," Medvedev said. At the same time, the head of government noted that the amount of reserve funds of the government is growing.

Russia's GDP for the first half of 2017 grew by 1.7% and is expected to continue to grow in the second half of the year, he went on. 

"Over the past six months, the gross domestic product grew by 1.7%, which is about 42 trillion rubles ($725 bln) in value, and we expect that in the second half of the year the growth of the GDP will continue," he said.

The federal budget revenues from taxes and fees for the past six months exceeded the volume of oil and gas revenues, he said. 

"I would like to note that the revenue structure is changing - now we are getting more money from taxes and fees than from selling oil and gas," Medvedev said.

The Prime Minister noted that budget revenues in the reporting period grew by 14%, which exceeded the government's forecast. According to the results of the first half of the year, the volume of federal budget revenues exceeded 7 trillion rubles ($121.42 bln), which is 21.5% more than the same period last year. Budget expenditures for the first half of the year amounted to 7.5 trillion rubles ($130.09 bln).