More than half of the regions in the Russian Federation faced a budget deficit.

Budget deficit growth in most regions of Russia

More than half of the regions of the Russian Federation faced a budget deficit at the end of the first nine months of 2024. The main reasons are a sharp increase in expenses with a relatively small increase in revenues.

According to an analysis conducted by Expert RA and published in the “Vedomosti” publication, 56 administrative units of the Russian Federation faced a financial deficit, which in total amounted to 169.2 billion rubles. The main reasons were an increase in expenses by 14.6% year-on-year with revenue growth of only 6.9%, reaching 16 trillion rubles.

The largest deficits were recorded in the Kemerovo region (43.9 billion rubles), the Irkutsk region (41.1 billion), and the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (38 billion). At the same time, some regions, such as Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Tatarstan, have a budget surplus of 269.4 billion rubles, 47.9 billion, and 43.9 billion rubles respectively.

The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation provides slightly different data, noting that the deficit amounted to 139 billion rubles and covered 55 regions. According to operational calculations as of November 19, the total deficit amounts to 0.6 trillion rubles.

Analysts point out the need to increase spending due to the implementation of national projects, infrastructure updates, and social obligations. The main areas of increased spending were social policy, the national economy, and education. Debt servicing costs also increased 1.5 times.