The Finance Ministry: Federal budget surplus at 1.5% of GDP in January–March

Surplus of Russia’s federal budget amounted to 344.35 billion rubles in January–March, or to 1.5% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), the Finance Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

The ministry also raised its estimate for the budget’s surplus in January to 3.6% of the GDP from 3.5% of the GDP, February surplus was assessed at 0.8% of the GDP, up from 0.3% of the GDP and March surplus at 0.5% of GDP.

Revenue of the federal budget amounted to 4.075 trillion rubles in January–March, or 26.7% of the planned annual figure, while spending reached 3.731 trillion rubles in the period, or 22.6% of the planned annual spending.

The Federal Tax Service contributed 2.678 trillion rubles to the budget in the period, while the Federal Customs Service contributed 1.194 trillion rubles, and other federal authorities contributed 202.875 billion rubles.

The budget law envisages the federal budget’s deficit of 1.3% of GDP in 2018.