In August, Russia recorded its highest monthly budget surplus in a year, reaching 660 billion rubles ($7.7 billion), according to Bloomberg, citing data from the Ministry of Finance.

The main driver of this growth was dividend payments from state-owned banks and companies, which brought 691 billion rubles into the treasury. Revenues from the oil and gas sectors increased by 17% compared to the previous year, which helped offset a 16% increase in government spending.

Thanks to these revenues, the total budget deficit for the first eight months of the year decreased to 5.8 trillion rubles.

However, the current figure still significantly exceeds the planned annual target of 3.8 trillion rubles, or 1.6% of GDP. The government will present updated budget forecasts at the end of September. 

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