Russias deficit spending for the first 2 months of 2025 reached 2.7 trillion rubles ($31.6 billion), driven by a 30.6% year-on-year increase in spending and more modest earnings development, Finance Ministry information published Tuesday showed.Revenues increased 6.3% to 5.34 trillion rubles, while expenditures rose to 8.45 trillion rubles in January and February.Russias Finance Ministry attributed the sharp rise in spending to early contract payments, which accelerated in January before decreasing last month.However, no substantial modifications in the quarterly dynamics of expenditure execution are expected this year, the ministry said, according to the Interfax news agency.Russia has predicted a full-year deficit spending of 1.17 trillion rubles (0.5% of GDP) for 2025, below 3.49 trillion rubles (1.7% of GDP) in 2024, as it expects greater tax revenues and decreased social spending.The deficit for January and February 2025 amounts to 1.3% of GDP more than double the 0.6% tape-recorded in the exact same duration last year.Russias federal government has actually allocated a record 13.5 trillion rubles from its 41.47 trillion-ruble budget for national defense in 2025.
Analysts have actually alerted that increased federal spending could fuel higher-than-expected inflation.Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry warned that decreasing oil prices could put additional pressure on the deficit.