According to Siluanov, the exact size of the deficit can be calculated in the second half of the year. In June, he admitted that the final deficit would depend on the amount of additional expenditure obligations.
The deficit of the federal budget of Russia this year may exceed the planned value of 2% of GDP, the minister of finance said.
“Now the size of the deficit goes to about the levels that we put into the plan. At the end of the year, its size will be 2-2.5% of GDP. More precisely it will be possible to say in the second half of the year”, Siluanov said.
According to him, Russia has a sufficient amount of resources for execution of both planned and additional expenses arising during the year.
“At the moment, the minister’s forecast looks very optimistic: 3% looks more realistic (of course, all other things being equal)”, economist, associate professor of RANEPA Sergey Khestanov believes.