Russia's federal budget deficit in 2026 is projected to reach 4.83 trillion rubles, or 2% of GDP, surpassing the planned figure of 3.79 trillion rubles (1.6% of GDP), Reuters reported, citing data from the government's budget portal.
According to the published figures, budget expenditures this year could rise to 45.11 trillion rubles, while the law for 2026 had set spending at 44.07 trillion rubles. The revenue forecast remained unchanged at 40.28 trillion rubles.
In the first half of 2026, the federal budget deficit already reached 5.73 trillion rubles, or 2.5% of GDP — 1.7 times higher than in the same period last year. The official documents do not specify the reason for the spending increase, but Reuters noted that Russia's military expenditures continue to grow amid the war against Ukraine.
Finance Minister Anton Siluanov earlier said the year-end deficit would slightly exceed the official forecast but promised it would not lead to a significant increase in domestic borrowing.
In 2025, Russia's budget deficit nearly quintupled the target, reaching 5.7 trillion rubles (2.6% of GDP) — the highest since 2020. Germany's foreign intelligence service BND previously stated that the actual deficit for 2025 was 8.01 trillion rubles, compared to the official 5.65 trillion rubles.
Spending on "national defense" in 2026 is set at 12.9 trillion rubles — 29.3% of all expenditures, exceeding the annual budgets of 62 Russian regions. Together with spending on the entire security apparatus, this amount reaches 17 trillion rubles.