MOSCOW, October 24 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s federal budget for 2015 will be executed in any macroeconomic forecast, regardless of inflation, oil prices, or any other factors, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Friday.
“Regardless of the change in the macroeconomic forecast, all of the budget’s liabilities will be completed. In order to do this we have stocked reserves and created insurance mechanisms, so regardless of any change in the forecast, the budget for 2015 will be executed,” Siluanov said during an interview on Rossiya-24 television.
Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, is currently reviewing the 2015 federal budget, as well as the budgets for 2016 and 2017 with a planned deficit of 0.6 percent of GDP over the next three years.
This comes after the Russian finance chief said earlier in the day the country needed to think of a "Plan B" for budget expenses where it could cut some spending in the event that the macroeconomic environment remained as "complex."
Siluanov reiterated that the Finance Ministry was not going to replenish the Reserve Fund in 2015 and the funds would be allocated for the partial substitution of borrowing. In case the economic situation remains unfavorable in 2015-2017, the Reserve Fund will be used to cover the highest priority expenditures.
The minister therefore asked the Russian parliament to allow the use of Reserve Fund assets in 2015.
In mid-October, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia had enough reserves to meet state budget goals regardless of global political and economic trends. He added the country's budget could be adjusted to reflect fluctuations in oil prices, but vowed social spending would not be cut.
