Russia's federal budget revenue may fall in '07
Xinhua, Moscow
Russia's federal budget incomes this year will go down by 170 billion rubles (6.5 bln US dollars) due to falling crude oil prices and a reduction in the GDP, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin told the Cabinet. This year's price of Russian crude oil will average 55 dollars per barrel, while the price assumption is 61 dollars per barrel according to the budget. Kudrin was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying that the GDP had been overestimated and that was a reason for certain alarm. In January and February the price of Russian crude oil averaged 51.6 dollars per barrel. "This means that the budget revenues are already down by an expected 170 billion rubles," Kudrin said. A decline in the share of the fuel and energy complex in the GDP from 20 percent to 12 percent in also foreseeable. Falling oil prices are not the sole reason. Mineral resources production has been growing far more slowly than the economy in general.
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