Experts point to gap between growth of budget expenditures and revenues

In the first half of 2002, the planned level of federal budget revenues (RUR973.7bn or about $30.84bn) was exceeded by RUR17.4bn (about $551.10m), the Center for Macroeconomic Research of the UNICON/MS Consulting Group reported. Additional revenues of the federal budget are attributed to the fact that the actual level of collecting the single social tax overcomes the planned amount in this period. In January-July 2002, federal budget revenues grew by 24.6 percent in real terms as compared to the corresponding period of 2001, while expenditures gained 25.5 percent. However, in the opinion of experts, the situation is absolutely different if one does not take social tax revenues into account. Eventually, actual revenues of the federal budget went up by 3.7 percent in the first six months of 2002 against 2001, actual expenditures gaining 7 percent.

Consequently, the growth of expenditures is not supported by an increase in revenues in full, analysts conclude. In connection with this, Russia can face problems with accumulating the sufficient volume of financial reserves, they believe.

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