Currently, the Russian economy is suffering from an economic slowdown. GDP of Russia decreased by 3.7% and 0.2% in 2015 and 2016, respectively. Under these conditions, it is not surprising that the country experiences the increase of public debt to GDP, which according to the Finance Ministry of Russia, will reach 14.6% or $223.3 (hereinafter USD/RUB is 56.79) billion in 2017, while in 2016 the rate was 13.2% or $195.6 billion. It was also noted that the Ministry expects that the ratio will be growing further. It is forecasted that in 2018 the public debt to GDP will reach 14.9% or $242.6 billion, while in 2019 the rate will reach 15.3% or $266.5 billion. It is important to note that the Russian Government is going to focus mostly on the internal sources of financing budget deficit. The Government plans to increase internal public debt to GDP from 9.5% in 2016 to 11.7% in 2019, while external public debt to GDP is expected to be almost the same (3.7% in 2016 and 3.6% in 2019.)
Daniyar Nurbayev is a research fellow at the Eurasian Research Institute. Daniyar completed his bachelor’s degree in Finance in the Kazakh-British Technical University in 2013. In addition, he holds Masters degree in Finance from the Kazakh-British Technical University (2015). In 2014, he attended to the research summer school at University Campus Suffolk in Ipswich, United Kingdom. His research interests include political economy, economic growth in developing countries, macroeconomic and monetary policy related issues.