Russia's 2010 federal budget deficit could come in at 5.1% of GDP, 1.7% less than current projections, a deputy finance minister said on Friday.
Tatyana Nesterenko said the new projection was based on an adjusted macroeconomic forecast.
"One possible scenario is a deficit reduction to 5.1%, if no additional spending commitments are made," she said.
This year, Russia will see its first budget deficit in nine years as a result of the world financial crisis and a drop in the oil price.
Deputy Finance Minister Dmitry Pankin said in early April it would take Russia four to five years to return to the deficit-free budgets the country enjoyed before the global financial crisis.
In his April address to the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the budget deficit should be decreased not by raising taxes, but by spending funds more efficiently.
The government plans to resort to foreign loans this year for the first time since the 1998 financial meltdown.
Russia, which continues to rely on raw material exports as its principal source of budget revenue, was badly affected by the 2008 global economic crisis and is at risk this year of depleting its reserve fund, set up as a repository for its windfall oil profits.
MOSCOW, May 14 (RIA Novosti)
