The Eurasian Economic Commission has released the results of the execution of the republican budgets of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) countries for the first half of 2024.
Among all the union countries, only Kyrgyzstan and Armenia managed to finish this period with a surplus, while data for Belarus is unavailable. Akchabar reports on the key aspects of this economic phenomenon.
The total revenues of the republican budgets of the EAEU states for the first six months of 2024 reached $208.5 billion, which is 12.5% higher compared to the same period last year.
Notably, the majority of the revenue (88%) comes from the Russian budget, and its growth was the main factor in the overall increase in income. In Russia, budget revenues grew by $22.1 billion, equivalent to a 13.69% increase.
In the first half of 2024, Russian treasury revenues amounted to $183.5 billion, almost catching up with the combined revenues of all EAEU countries' budgets for the same period in 2023, which totaled $185.3 billion.
Despite the overall revenue growth, expenditures also increased in almost all EAEU countries, except for Kazakhstan, which reduced its spending by half a billion dollars.
For example, Russia increased its spending by $3.2 billion, Armenia by $500 million, and Kyrgyzstan by $100 million.
Although in most EAEU countries the pace of revenue growth outpaced the growth of expenditures, this did not lead to a universal surplus. Only Armenia and Kyrgyzstan managed to finish the half-year with a surplus, although its value in dollars is not particularly large. Armenia’s surplus amounts to 11 billion drams ($27.5 million).
Kyrgyzstan not only ended the first half-year with a surplus but also demonstrated a significant increase in it.
In dollars, the surplus amounted to $300 million, while in the national currency it was 30.6 billion som ($300 million), significantly exceeding last year’s figure of 2.3 billion som ($27 million 85 thousand 845).
This growth is explained by a significant increase in revenue with a moderate rise in expenditures. Kyrgyzstan’s budget revenue increased by 40.4 billion som in six months, while expenditures grew by only 12.1 billion som ($142 million 495 thousand 100).
However, in Russia, despite substantial revenue growth, the budget remained in deficit, with a deficit of 11.7 billion rubles ($137 million 784 thousand 518). This is due to the accumulated deficit from last year when the gap between revenues and expenditures was significant.
A similar situation is observed in Kazakhstan: although expenditures decreased, the budget deficit remained. The increase in revenues by $500 million and the reduction in expenditures by the same amount did not fully eliminate the deficit.
Thus, the dynamics of the republican budget indicators of the EAEU countries for the first half of 2024 were uneven. Nevertheless, the structure of budget revenues remains similar, with a predominance of value-added tax (25-39%) and other budget receipts (43-55%).
CentralasianLIGHT.org
September 2, 2024