LETTER FROM MOSCOW: JULY 2010

摘要

Cash remains short in Moscow as the government seeks ways to reduce its budget deficit. The deficit was forecast by the Finance Ministry in February to hit 7.2% of GDP in 2010, owing to rising expenditures and falling revenues. The ministry pledged then to keep the deficit to 6.8% of GDP The situation may be improving because in May, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin announced that the deficit this year could come in under 5.4%. However, this would still be the country's first deficit in nine years and it still threatens to exhaust the Reserve Fund built up for times just such as these.