According to the 2005 draft budget, $2.2 billion of the above amount will go to repay loans to international financial organizations, including $1.3 billion to the International Monetary Fund and $0.9 billion to the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, a government source told RIA Novosti.
Another $4.3 billion will go to settle debts to foreign nations, including $3.2 billion on the former Soviet Union's debt.
The Russian government plans to attract some $3.6 billion from foreign sources of finance in 2005, but no borrowings from foreign governments are envisaged, RIA Novosti's interviewee said.
According to him, the 2005 draft budget provides for a reduction in the use of tied loans from foreign governments to $174.9 million. As to non-financial loans from international financial organizations, Russia's borrowings will increase substantially to an annual $952.4 billion in 2005. Eurobonds worth up to 2.5 billion rubles are to be placed on the market next year.
The 2005 draft budget also proposes that the Central Bank should transfer to the federal coffers 80% of its annual incomes after tax, as against 50% last year, RIA Novosti's interlocutor revealed. The remainder of the income is to go to various reserves and funds.
Russia's stabilization fund is to reach 795.3 million rubles by the end of 2005. "In line with the Budget Code, additional revenues resulting from the price of Urals crude oil surpassing the projected $20 should be written down in the stabilization fund. The [market] situation in 2005 is expected to bring such revenues to 387.8 billion rubles (the U.S. dollar buys 29.2 rubles, on current rates), so by the end of the year, the total amount will come to 795.3 billion rubles," our source said.
According to the 2005 draft budget, with the stabilization fund 500 billion rubles larger than the target, the government will be able to use some of the extra funds for foreign debt payments (as much as 92.2 billion rubles could be allocated for the purpose). The draft budget architects are said to have based their calculations on Urals crude's average annual price projected for 2005, $28 per barrel.
