MOSCOW, January 20 (RIA Novosti) – Russia ran a budget deficit last year of 310 billion rubles ($9.2 billion), the Finance Ministry said in preliminary data for 2013 released Monday, the Prime news agency reported.
The figure amounts to about 0.5 percent of Russia’s gross domestic product and is slightly lower than the Finance Ministry’s latest prediction of 0.9 percent of GDP for the 2013 shortfall.
Rising oil prices and rapid economic growth allowed Russia to record a budget surplus for much of the 2000s, but sputtering economic growth last year has led to smaller revenues and changes to long-term fiscal planning.
According to the budget signed into law last year by President Vladimir Putin, Russia is expected to record a budget deficit of 391 billion rubles ($12 billion) this year and 817 billion rubles ($25 billion) in 2015.
Russia’s total income last year was 13.02 trillion rubles ($386 billion), the Finance Ministry said.
