The Russian budget deficit may be below the expected 4% of GDP, Russian finance minister Alexei Kudrin said on Wednesday.
"The deficit may be slightly less [than expected]... The finance ministry will try to keep it below 4% [of GDP]," he said.
"This year we will spend 467 billion rubles less from the reserve fund," he added.
The finance minister added that the fund will be exhausted completely in 2011, not in 2010 as it was previously expected, as a result of higher oil prices.
The average price of Russia's Urals export oil blend may stand at $75 per barrel this year, according to the Russian finance ministry's revised forecast, Kudrin said.
Russia's oil price equaled $76.71 per barrel in March 2010 and registered an increase of 7.5% in April this year, month-on-month.
The price jumped 69% in April 2010 year-on-year, to $82.5 per barrel as the world economy recovered from the effects of the global economic crisis.
MOSCOW, June 2 (RIA Novosti)
