The State Budget in Q3 2013

Abstract

According to data released by the RF Federal Treasury, in Q3 2013 the decline in federal budget revenues was occurring at a slightly slower rate than previously. Thus, over the course of January-September 2013, the federal budget’s revenue and its oil and gas revenues dropped by 1.7 p.p. of GDP and 0.9 p.p. of GDP respectively on the same period of 2012, while over the course of the first half year of 2013 they had dwindled by 2.1 p.p. of GDP and 1.6 p.p. of GDP respectively on the first half year of 2012. In January-August 2013, the consolidated budget revenue of RF subjects amounted to 12.1% of GDP, which represented a 0.3 p.p. of GDP rise on their consolidated budget revenue in January-June 2013. At the same time, Russia’s budget system has very small potential for further growth in revenues, which is especially true of the consolidated budgets of those RF subjects that are not engaged in the export of carbohydrates. Therefore, apart from taking measures designed to optimize federal budget spending, the RF Government must pay special attention to the state of regional budgets and, maybe, to revise its approach to the sphere of inter-budget relations.