42.15 trillion rubles of state spending — is it much or little?

The spending of the Russian state in 2020 was record for the entire post-Soviet history and amounted to 42,15 trillion rubles, according to Andrey Chernyavsky, leading researcher at the HSE Development Centre. In this calculation, state expenditures are understood as the federal budget, regions with municipalities, and extra-budgetary funds.

More than half (54%) of Russia's expanded state spending in 2020 accounted for the federal budget. In comparison with 2019, federal budget spending increased by a quarter, according to the assessment of the Accounting Chamber. The consolidated budgets of the regions increased by 15%, mainly due to increased spending on health care, according to data from the Federal Treasury.

If we compare the spending of different years as a percentage of GDP, then expanded government spending in 2020 (39,5% of GDP) second only to the indicator of the crisis in 2009, when spending amounted to the maximum for the post-Soviet history of 41,4% of GDP, RBK reports. However, the publication notes: then GDP fell by a record 7,8%.

42.15 trillion rubles — it is:

• $554,75 billion at the current exchange rate. Or 10,19 million bitcoins.
• More than twice as much as the federal budget revenues — in 2020, they amounted to 18,723 billion rubles.
• One and a half times more than the total budget of all national projects in Russia for the period from 2019 to 2024 — this amount is 25,7 trillion rubles.
• Less than a number of developed countries in Europe spend, if we compare spending to the country's GDP. Government spending accounts for more than 40% of GDP in the Netherlands, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Austria, Italy, Norway, Belgium, Finland and France.
• But many developing countries spend more than in relation to GDP: in the previous year, 2019, Ukraine alone spent more than 40%. However, Russia then spent only 35,2% of GDP on state spending, and South Africa, Turkey, Brazil and Saudi Arabia were also ahead of it in this indicator.
• More than five times less than the US is preparing to inject into its economy as part of the next stimulus plan prepared by the Joe Biden administration. According to media reports, the cost of this plan is estimated at $3 trillion.
• Four times less than the package of “covid” support measures that Biden presented in January: its volume is estimated at $1,9 trillion.