Regions’ Budgets in the Wake of the Crisis

Alexander N. Deryugin – Senior Researcher of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration; Researcher of the Gaidar Institute (Moscow, Russia). Е-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

At first ten months of 2020 in relation to the corresponding period of 2019, revenues of the consolidated regions’ budgets rose by 4.8%. Despite the unfolding «second wave» of the pandemic, own tax and non-tax revenues of the consolidated budget of Russia’s subjects have been sustainable and do not reveal high rates of decline in autumn this year.

By contrast with previous crisis periods, current regional policy of the RF Government in 2020 opts for provision of additional governmental fiscal transfers against budget loans which allows subjects to execute all current expenditure commitments practically without raising debt burden. Change in the expenditure structure of regional consolidated budgets has an obvious anti-crisis character. Expenditures have been growing significantly faster than inflation. Regional debt burden stays at a rather low level.

Key words: regions’ budgets, regional budgets revenues, regional budgets expenditures, regional public debt, public loans, crisis.