Consolidated Budgets of the Subjects of the Russian Federation in the First Half of 2021: is the Crisis Ended?

Abstract

In the first half of 2021, positive trends in the economy led to a pronounced increase in revenues of the consolidated budgets of RF subjects. Corporate income tax and personal income tax receipts increased most significantly. In most subjects of the Russian Federation, this year’s revenue growth has compensated for last year’s drop, but in a number of regions whose economies have a raw material orientation, the 2019 pre-crisis year indicators have not yet been exceeded. The total amount of the federal transfers remained practically at the level of 2020. At the same time, the structure of this aid has changed significantly. Unconditional grants receipts have decreased and subsidy receipts have increased significantly. The growth of expenditures of sub-federal budgets lags behind the dynamics of revenues, ensuring a pronounced budget surplus. The main areas of spending remain social policy, education and the national economy. Federal subsidies account for a significant portion of the increase in spending on social policy. The high growth rate of expenditures on the national economy is largely ensured by one subject of the Russian Federation Moscow. Health care spending, which grew ahead of schedule in 2020, has declined this year, but remained above precrisis 2019 levels. While in general all subjects of the Russian Federation executed their consolidated budgets in the first half of the year with a surplus, in a number of regions there is a budget deficit. In several regions, the surplus values turned out to be very significant due to the growth of income, which was not predicted.