MOSCOW (Sputnik) — A small increase in Russia's budget deficit is "acceptable," Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday.
During the Q&A session in Moscow, Putin said:
"It must be said that last year we laid out, if we move on to budget matters, with a small deficit of 0.5 percent, and did not allow it to unwind, to slip down into a major deficit."
The Russian budget is heavily dependent on revenues from its oil industry.
A sharp drop in oil prices on global market and economic sanctions the United States and its allies imposed against Russia over its alleged role in the Ukraine crisis urged Russian government to take anti-crisis measures.
In January, the Russian government unveiled an anti-crisis plan to improve the country's economic situation by 2017. The plan stipulated 10-percent spending cuts in most categories of the 2015 budget.
Russia's social and defense expenditures were not affected by the spending cuts.
