According to the draft budget, budget revenue in 2006 will come to $176.4 billion – almost 60 percent up on forecast revenue for 2005.
State spending in 2006 is planned for a total of $142.2 billion.
The Russian government will continue its policy of ensuring that revenue exceeds expenditure in 2006 and will likewise continue work to bring down the inflation rate. The inflation rate is forecast to be around 7–8.5 percent in 2006.
Russian Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref forecasts GDP growth of 5.8 percent in Russia in 2006.
Going by the results for the current year, GDP growth for 2005 could come to 5.9 percent. Industrial output rose by 4.1 percent over the first 7 months of the current year. The country’s principal manufacturing and processing industries show higher production growth for all main parameters than the raw material sectors.
The meeting with the cabinet members at the Kremlin also heard a report by Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov about the stationing of mountain brigades in the country’s southern region, and about preparations for a number of military exercises to take place over the summer-autumn period, including Russian Air Force exercises, exercises held by the Northern Fleet, a naval expedition to the Atlantic and Russian-Chinese military exercises in the coastal zone of the Yellow Sea.