OREANDA-NEWS. April 20, 2009. Russia’s Finance Ministry has already spent RUB 123.8 bn to cover the federal budget deficit, deputy finance minister Tatyana Nesterenko said at a briefing. “If we had not accumulated the Reserve Fund and the Finance Ministry had not tapped the fund in the first quarter, the deficit could have been RUB 123.8 bn, that is we could have been forced to cut spending by this amount”, Nesterenko said.

In addition, according to her, MinFin has taken RUB 940 bn from the reserve fund and the difference could be deposited at banks. “We’re taking out more resources from the Reserve Fund just to be on the safe side, since first, we may urgently need them, including for partial placement and deriving income”, the deputy minister added. “We have coordinated all our actions with the Bank of Russia and expect no major injections”, she went on to say.

According to her, the 2009 budget revenue provides for RUB 20 bn to be derived by MinFin from placement of free budget resources on bank deposits. The Finance Ministry recently resumed depositing budget funds at banks after a 5-month break. A total of RUB 45 bn out of offered RUB 50 bn of federal budget resources was placed at bank deposits at the last April 14 auction, with the average rate amounting to 15.01%.