MOSCOW, August 17 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's federal budget deficit, without its oil and natural gas revenues, will total 5.4% of the country's gross domestic product in 2007, and 5.2% in 2006, the finance minister said Thursday.
Alexei Kudrin told a government session that his ministry had developed a method to define the economy's dependence on oil and gas revenues, and to measure its evolution.
The minister said oil and gas revenues were expected to total 10.9% of GDP in 2006, or 48.2% of aggregate budget revenues.
