The budget deficit may be wider this year than official estimates show, Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrei Klepach said Thursday, even after the shortfall in the first 11 months indicated state coffers have benefited from oil windfall.
The deficit may reach “about 7 percent” of gross domestic product in 2009, Klepach said. That compares with a 4.9 percent shortfall in the year through November.
Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin on Nov. 25 said the deficit will be 6.9 percent this year. Strategists have estimated that state finances would benefit from higher oil revenue.
The gap will be equivalent to about 6.2 percent to 6.5 percent of GDP in 2010, Klepach said in a Dec. 1 interview.
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