RUSSIA'S 2004 BUDGET EXECUTED WITH ALMOST 1 BLN EURO SURPLUS

MOSCOW, May 7 (RIA Novosti) - According to preliminary estimates of the Russian Finance Ministry, the budget surplus in the year's first four months came to 32.54 billion roubles, or almost 1 billion euros (0.7 percent of the projected Gross Domestic Product for that period, or 365 percent of the expenditures made).

According to the ministry, the federal budget revenues in the January-to-April period reached 964.95 billion roubles (71.9 percent of the budget's target for the first half of the year).

The expenditures over the same period amounted to 932.41 billion roubles (68.7 percent of the sum allowed for by the 2004 budget in the year's former half).

The primary surplus (excluding the budget's interest spending) reached 113.4 billion roubles in the January-to-April period (2.4 percent of the projected GDP).

The Gross Domestic Product grew to an estimated 4.37 trillion roubles in the year's first four months.

The public-sector companies' bank balances shrank by 29.75 billion roubles over the period.

In January through April, an estimated 598.736 billion roubles in tax revenues flowed into the federal coffers (72.7 percent of the target figure for the year's first half), reports the Finance Ministry.