Baku-APA. Russian faces a budget shortfall of 1 trillion rubles (over 21 billion U.S. dollars) in 2015 as a result of a combination of negative economic factors, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Wednesday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.
Worsened external economic conditions and contracted imports are among the reasons for Russia's slow economic growth, Siluanov told a meeting at the Federal Council, the upper house of parliament.
Unless the ruble's current exchange rates and oil prices are changed, the government will suffer a 500-billion-ruble (over 10.6 billion dollars) loss in revenue in the draft budget for 2015, Siluanov said.
Expressing worries that the oil prices would remain under 90 dollars for a long time, he said that the Russian government will have to adjust the budget for the next three years accordingly.
"Other risks come from the slow economic growth forecast of under 1.2 percent, as well as import risks. This will add underpayment of another 500 billion rubles," the Interfax news agency quoted the minister as saying.
The Federal Council on Wednesday approved the federal budget for the next three years based on Crimea's integration into Russia, effects of Western sanctions and large-scale tax changes in Russia's oil industry.
The budget projects GDP at 77.5 trillion rubles (over 1.6 trillion dollars) and inflation at 5.5 percent in 2015, with an annual GDP growth rate of 7 to 8 percent and a decrease of annual inflation rate by 0.5 to 1 percentage point.
The three-year budget was adopted with a deficit of 0.6 percent of GDP, which is expected to be financed through state borrowing and privatization.
Moreover, in order to ease pressure on the ruble, Siluanov said the Finance Ministry is going to hold two more foreign currency deposit auctions by the end of this year.
Siluanov proposed lending domestically to make up for the budget shortfall.
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