KUDRIN: "RUSSIAN BUDGET FACES TOUGH THREE YEARS"

C O N F I D E N T I A L MOSCOW 002800 SIPDIS STATE FOR EUR/RUS, EEB/IFD TREASURY FOR TORGERSON DOC FOR 4231/MAC/EUR/JBROUGHER NSC FOR ELLISON E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/17/2018 TAGS: EFIN ECON PINR RS SUBJECT: KUDRIN: "RUSSIAN BUDGET FACES TOUGH THREE YEARS" REF: MOSCOW 2791 Classified By: Ambassador John Beyrle, Reasons 1.4 (b/d). -------------- Summary -------------- ¶1. (C) Finance Minister Aleksey Kudrin announced at hearings in the Duma and Federation Council on September 11 that "Russia faces a difficult three-year budget cycle." The 2009-2011 budget plan he presented assumes GDP surpassing $2 trillion in 2009, with real growth of 6.7 percent but with declining government revenues and steady expenditures. Kudrin used these figures to argue that tax reductions would create increased risks for the broader economy. He also cautioned against raising expenditures, which would mean greater budget reliance on oil and gas revenues at a time when the budget should be moving away from dependence on these volatile sources of revenue. ¶2. (C) Our contacts said Kudrin had correctly forecast decreasing revenues, but they predicted that the GOR would face great pressure to increase spending. One example they pointed to was that Kudrin's comments came just one day after a closed session of the Duma had approved an increase of approximately RUR 230 billion (more than $9 billion) for defense spending (reftel). The scope of the proposed defense supplemental (0.5 percent of GDP) would, if authorized, nibble away at the projected 2009 budget surplus of 3.7 percent of GDP. This may only be the beginning, however, as our contacts pointed to the risk that a "feeding frenzy" could develop as other proposals, such as the reconstruction of South Ossetia and support for Russian businesses buffeted by the downturn in the Russian economy, are considered. End Summary. -------------- Kudrin Addresses Duma; Calls for Caution -------------- ¶3. (U) Amidst the ongoing meltdown of the Russian stock markets and increased investor uncertainty about the effects of softening oil prices, the global financial crisis and tensions with the West on Russia's economy, Finance Minister Aleksey Kudrin addressed the Duma and Federation Council September 11 to urge caution in their review of the 2009-2011 draft federal budget, sent to the Duma on August 26. Stability was Kudrin's watchword as he outlined the state of play between revenues and expenditures in the budget. He 
explained that GDP growth would remain strong but would slow to 6.7 percent in 2009, reaching RUR 51.5 trillion ($2.01 trillion). Despite this strong growth, government revenue would gradually decrease as a share of GDP, from 21.2 percent in 2009 to 19 percent in 2011. Expenditures, however, he said would remain steady at 17.5 percent of GDP through 2011. ¶4. (U) Kudrin also told the Duma that 2008 was the country's most successful year ever for managing oil and gas revenues, but he warned that the 2009-2011 period would be "more complex." The 2008 budget would be balanced at $62 per barrel, while the average price year-to-date has been $100. However, the 2009 budget is projected to be balanced at approximately $70 and softening oil prices could threaten the budget's surplus. Kudrin argued that this situation merited caution and that the Duma should be "careful" in considering any cut in oil taxes. Kudrin also argued against a proposed cut in value-added taxes (VAT) from 18 percent to 12 percent, noting that this would essentially raise the 2009 balanced budget price of Urals from $70 to $100 per barrel. ¶5. (U) On the spending side, Kudrin publicly promised to support both increased defense spending and "reconstruction" funds for Abkhazia and South Ossetia. With the Duma, however, he pleaded his case against any other additional programs. He noted that, compared to the budget for 2008, the current draft budget already allocated increases for education (0.84 percent of GDP vs. 0.79 percent of GDP in 2008),national security and law enforcement (2.11 percent vs. 1.89 percent),health care (0.71 percent vs. 0.68 percent),and defense (2.5 percent vs. 2.34 percent). -------------- Point: Budget Spending Likely To Rise -------------- ¶6. (C) Alfa Bank Chief Economist Natalia Orlova told us that, in one sense, Kudrin's "stock was rising." He had championed a cautious budget when market projections for oil were being continuously revised upward. Falling oil prices had now vindicated Kudrin's preference for fiscal stability. She observed, however, that rising macroeconomic uncertainty had already prompted various officials and business groups to seek support from the government under the guise of regaining economic stability or enhancing national security. Orlova said she feared that the multiplication of needs could grow from a nibbling away at the budget's surplus to a "feeding frenzy" as an increasing number of officials and businessmen sought budget support for everything from South Ossetian reconstruction to direct support for Russian businesses hurt by the rising price of capital. ¶7. (U) Orlova pointed to a September 6 address to the State Council by President Medvedev, in which he lamented that the conflict with Georgia had exposed certain weaknesses in Russia's military capabilities. In what appeared to be a response to that address, a closed session of the Duma on September 10 approved an increase in defense spending (reftel). The supplemental would augment spending by RUR 230 billion ($9 billion),taking the defense line item to RUR 1.5 trillion (3 percent of GDP). During the same September 6 State Council meeting, Agriculture Minister Aleksey Gordeyev announced that the budget would provide an additional RUR 102 billion ($4 billion, or 0.2 percent of GDP) during 2009 to support a domestic expansion of beef and milk production. As Orlova noted, if incorporated into the budget, these programs alone would reduce the projected budget surplus from 3.7 percent of GDP to 3 percent. ¶8. (C) Orlova said these proposals suggested Kudrin's hawkish preferences on spending could be overcome. The Duma's approval of the defense supplemental had to have been approved at the highest levels of the GOR. In addition, some of the spending increases already in the budget, such as outlays for hosting the APEC Summit in 2012, had been dictated to Kudrin earlier this year, according to Orlova. She sensed that a semblance of "real debate" on budget priorities could emerge in the coming weeks. However, this would likely translate into greater pressure on Kudrin to spend more of the GOR's oil and gas revenues, including possibly the Reserve and National Welfare Funds. ¶9. (C) Deutsche Bank Chief Economist Yaroslav Lissovolik also told us that Kudrin would likely face growing pressure to increase spending. In that regard, he noted that the current environment had changed the Reserve Fund from a "blessing to a curse": the savings it represented had helped stabilize the economy but now were an irresistible source of temptation for government officials and businessmen alike. Lissovolik observed that Russia's economic environment had changed during the last couple of months and, consequently, the fiscal policy debate should change as well. For instance, cutting VAT, the "budget's largest source of revenue," was "the last thing the GOR should be doing" in the current environment of declining oil prices. Targeted oil and gas taxes, on the other hand, could be effective if they led to increased production. He warned that sharp spending increases would represent an unsettling departure from the savings-oriented approach of the GOR's budget implementation since 2000. The disruption would have a range of effects, according to Lissovolik, from greater uncertainty among investors who had grown accustomed to the GOR's fiscal policy to even higher inflation. -------------- Counterpoint: Budget Not Threatened -------------- ¶10. (C) Director of the Economic Experts Group Evsey Gurvich predicted that any spending increases above the levels outlined in the budget would amount to "a few tenths of a percent of GDP." Gurvich, whose firm serves as a consultant to the Finance Ministry, predicted that Kudrin would muster his influence, behind the scenes if necessary, to combat additional proposals for increased budget spending. Fighting inflation would be the Finance Minister's trump card in resisting more spending, according to Gurvich. He would invoke the "national priority" of taming rising prices to gain support for his arguments and, thus, win the day. ¶11. (C) Troika Dialog Chief Economist Evgeniy Gavrilenkov also told us that Kudrin enjoyed a position of relative strength in the budget process and that changes in spending would probably be marginal. He added that the new budget concept also incorporated a provision that was intended to cover unexpected spending increases. These funds, cryptically titled "Conventionally Approved Expenditures," constituted a budget safety cushion that could be used to meet unexpected expenses or rolled over to the next fiscal year. He suggested that this might be another sign of Kudrin's efficacy; the Finance Minister may have engineered this feature to cover just the type of spending proposals that had emerged in recent weeks. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶12. (C) Kudrin based his 2008 budget assumptions on conservative oil price estimates, as he has in previous years, and his caution has once again proven prescient. The recent sharp drop in oil prices has put pressure on the budget surplus and complicated the debate over whether to cut the VAT or the oil and gas taxes. However, Kudrin's caution remains the exception within Russian business and government circles, where there is an increasingly strong lobby for tax cuts and increased expenditures, including government support of the financial sector and Russian businesses as access to capital tightens. This lobby may have enough strength to overcome Kudrin. ¶13. (C) Longer-term, if oil prices continue to soften the GOR will be hard pressed to fulfill all of its ambitious spending programs without seriously affecting its financial position. Even if prices remain stable, we anticipate that the long-term reforms that Medvedev has championed, including especially modernization of the infrastructure, will be delayed further by the "feeding frenzy" of Russian insiders competing for state support. BEYRLE