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Russian finance ministry predicts budget deficit to hit 3 trillion rubles in 2016

Xinhua, October 4, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Russian Finance Ministry predicts that the country's budget deficit may reach 3 trillion rubles (about 48 billion U.S. dollars) in 2016, according to a document published on the Official Internet-Portal of Legal Information site on Tuesday.

The Finance Ministry forecasted that Russia's budget deficit may exceed 3.66 percent of the GDP in 2016, it said.

According to the document, the ministry has reduced revenues by 370 billion rubles (5.9 billion dollars) to 13.3 trillion rubles (210 billion dollars).

It has also increased the expenditures by over 300 billion rubles (4.8 billion dollars) to 16.4 trillion rubles (260 billion dollars), said the document.

In 2015, Russia's federal budget was 2.6 percent in deficit, amounting to some 1.9 trillion rubles (30 billion dollars), according to the ministry. The federal budget has come under increasing pressure from falling oil prices and a falling GDP growth rate throughout 2015.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the Finance Ministry to control the budget deficit within 3 percent of the GDP in 2016.

In the first half of the year, the budget deficit amounted to 3.7 percent of the GDP, said the ministry. Endi