2005 federal budget parameters outlined

On Saturday, June 5, the Russian Finance Ministry will submit to the government the main parameters of the 2005 federal budget.

"The Economic Development and Trade Ministry has submitted an updated forecast of national socio-economic development (for the current and subsequent three years) and it will take us additional time to calculate budgetary revenues and expenses", Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin earlier said.

He asked the government to give his ministry more time to complete calculations. This is the reason why the document had not been submitted to the cabinet on June as planned, Mr. Kudrin said.

In addition, the Finance Ministry is going to revise performance of the 2004 federal budget on the basis of the updated forecast of national socio-economic development prepared by the Economic Development and Trade Ministry.

The ministerial calculations "provide the grounds for specifying the budget performance forecast for this year", Alexei Kurdin said.

"We are winding up the preparation of revenue and expenditure calculations", he said. They will be submitted to the government on Saturday, he promised.

As reported earlier, the Economic Development and Trade Ministry has upped the GDP forecast for 2004 from 6.4 to 6.6 percent. The world oil prices' estimate for 2004 has been increased from 28.5 to 29 dollars per barrel.