Federal Treasury estimates Russian budget deficit in Jan-Feb at 5.6 trln rubles

MOSCOW. March 31 (Interfax) - Russia's federal budget deficit amounted to 5.57 trillion rubles in January-February 2026, according to the Federal Treasury's estimate.

This data is contained in the treasury's report on budget execution as of March 1.

According to preliminary data from the Finance Ministry, the deficit in the first two months of the year amounted to 3.449 trillion rubles, or 1.5% of GDP. The budget law for the current year sets it at 3.786 trillion rubles, or 1.6% of GDP.

According to the Federal Treasury, the deficit was 1.629 trillion rubles in January. Comparing this with the figure for 2M gives an estimate of the deficit in February of approximately 4 trillion rubles.

At the same time, the treasury estimated revenue receipts in January-February to be significantly lower - at 2.5 trillion rubles compared to the Finance Ministry's estimate of 4.767 trillion rubles. Such a discrepancy may be due to the fact that the last day of February, the 28th, fell on a Saturday and some tax payments technically could have been processed on the first working day of March - March 2.

Expenditures, according to the treasury, are also lower than the ministry's estimate, but not significantly - 8.09 trillion rubles compared to 8.22 trillion rubles.