At the beginning of 2018, the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation traditionally "reported" to the citizens of the country. The department announced that over the past reporting period, the internal debt of the state increased by almost 20%. In monetary terms, this is more than 1 trillion rubles, which is a record.
What is domestic debt
Any state has debts. This is the aggregate of national budget deficits for a certain period of time. Allocate internal and external debt. The latter refers to the country's monetary obligations on foreign loans and outstanding interest on them. Domestic debt is understood as the debt of the state to its people. Moreover, both individuals and legal entities.
The domestic debt of the Russian Federation is presented in securities. Its formation has been going on since 1993. Initially, it was 90 million rubles, and over the years the debt only grows in size. A clear leap took place in 2015. In 2017, the debt increased significantly again. In January 2018, it was at the level of 7, 24 trillion rubles, and in December - 7, 7 trillion rubles.
By the size of external and internal debts, one can safely judge the state of the state's economy. So, huge numbers and sharp growth are clear signs of a financial crisis.
Why is Russia's domestic debt growing
According to officials, the increase in domestic debt was triggered by the issue of federal loan bonds with fixed income. The debt on such securities increased by almost 60% over 12 months. Debt on floating rate bonds increased by 24%.
Many ordinary citizens do not understand why the state issues bonds? Thanks to their placement in 2017, Russia attracted 1.7 trillion rubles to the national treasury. But we must not forget about the costs. Thus, 527 billion rubles were allocated to service the state debt. It turns out that the net attraction of funds, taking into account the repayment of the current debt, is about 1.1 trillion rubles. At the same time, the costs of repayment amounted to 632.9 billion rubles.
However, not everything is so rosy in these numbers. Economists explain that the placement of bonds leads to the growth of "hidden" budget deficits and deferred inflation. Since the proceeds from their placement are directed to cover the budget deficit, and the proceeds under this item are already breaking records.
Ordinary citizens express concern about the growth of national debt, but the Ministry of Finance does not see this as a disaster. The fact is that since January 2018 the country has been living on a new budget. Now the upper limit of the domestic debt has been expanded to 10.5 trillion rubles. At the same time, budget revenues are planned in the amount of 15, 2 trillion rubles. It turns out that instead of reducing the amount of debt, officials simply took and raised its upper limit.
Meanwhile, economists do not share the euphoria of representatives of the Ministry of Finance. Experts believe that record domestic borrowing may become an unbearable burden for the state treasury in a few years. And the more the debt increases, the faster the hard times will come.
