Regional Budgets for January-July 2019 : Growth of Revenues Shifts Into Low Gear

Fast increase of regional consolidated budgets amid low economic growth rates could stay for long. And such turning points was not slow in coming: following 22.6% growth as of first four months of 2019, increase of tax and non-tax regional revenues registered in May-July came to barely 1.4% and most likely will remain low till the end of the year. Despite the shift of priorities in the state budgetary policy the structure of the regional budgets expenditures for the first 7 months of 2019 does not practically change from the corresponding period of 2017. In its turn, deceleration of regional growth rates through the year-end will exercise downward pressure on the growth of their expenditure obligations. Solid performance of the regional budgets balance facilitated further contraction of the average debt burden of RF subjects which constituted 21.5% of the regional revenues volume returning to the 2009–2012 level. Nevertheless, average and low income regions report twice as high debt burden