Russia Subnational Governments' Fiscal Response to the Economic Downturn

The aim of this note is to present and analyze subnational fiscal trends in Russia in the context of overall slowing economic growth and falling oil prices over the last few years. In particular, in 2015, GDP fell by 3.7 percent. Despite efforts to cut expenditures, the federal deficit increased to...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Corporate Author: World Bank
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Washington, D.C The World Bank 2016
Series:Public Expenditure Review
Online Access:
Collection: World Bank E-Library Archive - Collection details see MPG.ReNa
LEADER 01991nmm a2200217 u 4500
001 EB002103298
003 EBX01000000000000001243388
005 00000000000000.0
007 cr|||||||||||||||||||||
008 221013 ||| eng
245 0 0 |a Russia  |h Elektronische Ressource  |b Subnational Governments' Fiscal Response to the Economic Downturn 
260 |a Washington, D.C  |b The World Bank  |c 2016 
710 2 |a World Bank 
710 2 |a World Bank 
041 0 7 |a eng  |2 ISO 639-2 
989 |b WOBA  |a World Bank E-Library Archive 
490 0 |a Public Expenditure Review 
028 5 0 |a 10.1596/27941 
856 4 0 |u http://elibrary.worldbank.org/doi/book/10.1596/27941  |x Verlag  |3 Volltext 
082 0 |a 330 
520 |a The aim of this note is to present and analyze subnational fiscal trends in Russia in the context of overall slowing economic growth and falling oil prices over the last few years. In particular, in 2015, GDP fell by 3.7 percent. Despite efforts to cut expenditures, the federal deficit increased to 2.4 percent of GDP. Subnational governments were also affected by the economic slowdown. Aggregate subnational revenues declined, in real terms, by 6 percent between 2014 and 2015. Revenues from taxes (including shares of federal taxes) fell by 4 percent while federal transfers fell by 13 percent. Nevertheless, the aggregate fiscal performance of subnational governments actually improved over this period. The nadir of subnational government finances occurred in 2013, when the consolidated subnational deficit reached 0.9 percent of GDP. Since then, it has shrunk. In 2015, the deficit was equal to only 0.2 percent of GDP. This was largely achieved by drastic cuts in spending. Spending in the social and infrastructure sectors both fell by 9 percent in real terms between 2014 and 2015. This note examines the fiscal prospects of subnational governments in Russia, focusing particularly on the nature of these spending cuts and whether they are sustainable over the medium term