The Ministry of Finance warned about the inevitable increase in Russia’s public debt, writes Interfax. The department intends to keep it within 20% of GDP, Deputy Minister Irina Okladnikova said.
According to the representative of the department, today the level of debt is 22.8 trillion rubles, that is, 14.9% of GDP. Okladnikova called this indicator safe, but added that in the future the debt will increase.
“This is a desperate situation, we will have to do this, because our spending is growing: we need to support the economy, we need to support the military bloc, and our four new regions need significant support,” he said.
The border of 20% of GDP is set as safe in the state program. This is a limiting indicator, which, in the most pessimistic situation, it is unacceptable to cross, added the vice minister.
He clarified that public debt has been increasing in recent years. So, in 2019, the domestic debt was estimated at 9 trillion rubles, in 2020 – already 10 trillion rubles. And in 2022 there was a significant increase, today the internal debt is 18.8 trillion rubles.
At the same time, external debt did not increase because the country can no longer borrow at external levels “for obvious reasons.”
“(Foreign debt) even decreased, last year, when we tried to meet our obligations after the imposition of sanctions, to be replaced, we slightly reduced external debt: it is 4 trillion rubles compared to 4.5 trillion rubles from January. January 1, 2022, that is, before the start of the special military operation,” Okladnikova explained.
Author:
Natalia Gormaleva
Source: RB
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
