OREANDA-NEWS. September 21, 2011. “The government’s position remains unchanged: responsible budgetary policy and what is called living within our means. Therefore we expect that by the end of the three-year period, by 2014, we will have cut the federal budget deficit by half, to about 0.7% of GDP”.

Vladimir Putin's opening remarks:

Good afternoon. Today we are summing up the government's work on the draft federal budget and off-budget funds for 2012-2014. During the course of our work we repeatedly discussed the main parameters, goals and tasks that we set ourselves. Even so, I would like to repeat some things considering that it is the most important, certainly the most important economic document for this year and coming years.

First, we must by all means meet all our obligations to our citizens, continue an active social policy, and invest in the sectors that determine quality of life and the living standard of Russian citizens.

Another priority, undoubtedly, is the modernisation of the national economy, and large-scale infrastructure programmes and projects. If we have thus arranged our priorities... I said: first, social tasks because this is the main purpose of any government in any state. But we cannot solve the first task without solving the second task. This leads us to the third priority, and that is strengthening security and modernising the army and navy, and developing the system of guarantees for servicemen and their families. The key objective is to preserve a balanced government budget and thus the stability of all the main macroeconomic parameters. I believe the final document reflects all these propositions.

In 2012, budget revenues will amount to 11.8 trillion roubles and budget spending to 12.7 trillion roubles. So, as you see, the budget deficit target for next year is 1.5% of GDP. I would like to remind you that when the budget for the current year was drafted, we set the deficit target at 3.6% of gross domestic product, but in reality we expect that government treasury revenues and expenditures will be equal, in other words, there will probably be no budget deficit.

I would like to stress that the government's position remains unchanged: a responsible budgetary policy and what is called living within our means. Therefore we expect that by the end of the three-year period, by 2014, we will have cut the federal budget deficit by half, to about 0.7% of GDP. We all understand very well, colleagues, that a balanced budget this year owes much to the global economic situation, which favours us.