Russian federal budget deficit 6.455 trillion rubles or 2.5% of GDP in Jan-July - MinFin

MOSCOW. Aug 11 (Interfax) - The Russian federal budget had a deficit of 6.455 trillion rubles or 2.8% of GDP for January-July according to preliminary estimates, the Finance Ministry said.

The planned budget deficit for 2026 as a whole is 3.786 trillion rubles or 1.6% of GDP. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said the forecast deficit might be increased somewhat.

There was a deficit of 4.622 trillion rubles or 2.2% of GDP in January-July 2025.

The high deficit at the beginning of the year is primarily due to advance financing of expenditures, the Finance Ministry said.

The ministry does not disclose monthly figures. There was a deficit of 5.731 trillion rubles or 2.5% of GDP for January-June, according to preliminary MinFin data, so the July deficit can be estimated at 720 billion rubles on that basis. A comparison of figures a month previously indicated there was a surplus of 280 billion rubles in June 2026. Comparison with Federal Treasury data, released after Finance Ministry data, point to a June surplus of 196 billion rubles.

Budget revenue rose 8.8% year-on-year in January-July to 22.112 trillion rubles. There was growth of 18.3% for the federal budget and 12.6% for the budget system as a whole.

Non-oil revenue grew to 17.518 trillion rubles. VAT revenue rose 24.9% to 9.791 trillion rubles.

Oil and gas revenue fell 16.8% year-on-year in January-July to 4.595 trillion rubles, a little higher than baseline oil and gas revenues for the period, which are 4.467 trillion rubles. This fell largely due to the drop oil prices in previous periods.

Budget expenditure rose 14.5% year-on-year to 28.567 trillion rubles due to the prompt conclusion of contracts and advance financing for individual contract expenses.