(Source: http://radio.bfm.ru/news)

The Ministry of Finance allowed for a withdrawal of 500 billion roubles from the Reserve Fund.

The Ministry of Finance does not exclude that more than 500 billion roubles from the Reserve Fund may be used in 2015. According to TASS, this was reported by the director of the Department for Long-Term Strategic Planning of the Ministry Maksim Oreshkin.

“Our main protection in the next year is the Reserve Fund. The use of the Reserve Fund is already predetermined, the question to what extent” – Oreshkin said. As it was previously reported, the draft budget for 2015-2017 years approved by the Federation Council last week allows for the transfer of the Reserve Fund money in the amount of 500 billion roubles for the substitution of revenues and government borrowings not received during the implementation of the federal budget.

As the Head of the Ministry of Finance Anton Siluanov explained earlier, the Finance Ministry will have to turn to these funds if the negative dynamics of oil prices and the rouble will persist in the next year. In her turn, the First Deputy Finance Minister Tatyana Nesterenko did not exclude that similar amounts might be required in 2016-2017. “There are risks in terms of fiscal policy: we expect to use about 1.5 trillion roubles for three years, which is almost a half of the Reserve Fund” - she said.

Earlier, according to the Ministry of Finance, the estimated losses of the 2015 budget caused by the deterioration of external environment, reduction in economic growth rate in the Russian Federation, as well as reduction of imports made up one trillion roubles. On November, 26 the Federation Council approved the law “On the Federal Budget for 2015 and the Planning Period of 2016 and 2017”.

The key indicators of the 2015 budget are calculated based on the expected GDP in the amount of $ 77.5 trillion roubles and the inflation rate of 5.5 percent, 83.21 trillion roubles and 4.5 percent for 2016, respectively, 90.06 trillion roubles and 4 percent for 2017. The federal budget has been formed taking into account the fiscal rules that reduce the dependence of fulfillment of expenditure commitments on the changes in world energy prices.

At that, the allowances are made for the transfer of the Reserve Fund money in the amount of 500 billion roubles for the substitution of revenues and government borrowings not received during the implementation of the federal budget. The budget deficit will stay at 0.6 percent of GDP within three years, and its main funding sources will be government borrowings and privatization proceeds.