The cost of war continues to rise in Russias defense budget

(London Reuters) The cost of the Ukraine war has continued to rise, which has put increasing pressure on Russia's finance.According to reports, Russia has doubled the defense budget in 2023, reaching $ 100 billion (about S $ 133.9 billion), accounting for one -third of all public expenditures.

In the first half of the year, national defense expenditure exceeded the annual budget 12%

According to a government document obtained by Reuters, in the first half of 2023, Russia's defense expenditure was more than 12%or 6000 than the original annual national defense budget of 4.98 trillion rubles (about S $ 70 billion).100 million rubles.

Files show that from January to June 2023, Russia's defense expenditure has reached 5.59 trillion rubles, accounting for 37.3%of the total expenditure of 1.497 trillion rubles in the same period.Russia originally only plans to use 17.1%of the budget for national defense.

Industrial production has improved, supporting the Russian economy has recovered slightly this year, but the rising cost of war plus export revenue has declined, which has caused Russian budget about $ 28 billion in deficits.

The increase in defense expenditure may further expand the deficit, and the increase in output may eat other departments and squeeze private investment.

Reuters calculated based on this document that Russia's national defense expenditure from January to June this year accounted for 19.2%of the total annual budget expenditure of the initial plan of 2023, and 57.4%of this year's national defense budget has been expended.

The number of monthly ammunition for national defense industry is more than 2022

Russia's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry and Trade Mantrov said in July that the current monthly ammunition produced by the defense industry is more than the annual output of 2022.

It is understood that as the budget is biased towards national defense and security, the budgets of schools, hospitals and roads have been squeezed. As the national defense expenditure share further increases, funds in other fields may also be reduced.