Russia ended 2024 with record budget deficit, The Moscow Times reports

Russia concluded 2024 with its largest budget deficit in recent years, amounting to RUB 3.5 trillion (about US$35 million).

Source: The Moscow Times, citing data from the Russian Ministry of Finance

Details: Preliminary estimates indicate that the Ministry of Finance's year-end expenditures exceeded the plan by RUB 800 billion (about US$8 billion). Total spending reached RUB 40.2 trillion (about US$403 billion), marking a 24% increase compared to 2023.

Accelerating inflation at the end of the year contributed to a 26% rise in non-oil-and-gas revenues, totalling RUB 25.6 trillion (about US$257 billion). Under fiscal rules, these funds were allocated to cover expenditures.

Oil and gas revenues also grew by 26% to RUB 11.1 trillion (about US$111 billion) but fell short of expectations, contributing an additional RUB 200 billion (about US$2 billion) to the deficit, which reached RUB 3.5 trillion (about US$35 billion).

This marks the worst deficit in recent years, compared to RUB 3.3 trillion (about US$33 billion) in 2022 and RUB 3.2 trillion (about US$32 billion) in 2023. Over three years of Russo-Ukrainian war, Russia’s cumulative budget deficit has reached RUB 10 trillion (about US$100 billion).

As a share of GDP, the deficit decreased to 1.7%, compared to 2.1% and 1.9% in the previous two years.

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