Professor Zubarevich does not find deficit of North-Caucasian budgets critical

This time again, deficit budgets have been brought for discussion to the Parliament of the Republics of Northern Caucasus. Officials claim that measures to reduce budget deficits are taken.

The Government of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) has made changes to the budget and reduced the deficit by 36 million roubles, a source from the Ministry of Finance of the KBR told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. In total, as he said, the budget revenues will increase by 805 million roubles.

In the Karachay-Cherkessian Republic (KChR), on December 18, a deficit-free budget was approved, contrary to initial plans. Sources from the Ministry of Finance of the KChR have assured that by 2017 the budget will grow by nearly 2 billion roubles and will make a little less than 14.5 billion roubles.

In the opinion of Natalia Zubarevich, Doctor of Geography, Professor at the Division of Economic and Social Geography of Russia at the Department of Geography of the Moscow State University (MSU), the director of the regional programme of the Independent Institute for Social Policy (IISP), and an expert United Nations Development Programme and the Moscow representative office of the International Labour Organization, the deficit of the budgets adopted in the republics of Northern Caucasus is small. According to her version, almost all the funds go to social sectors, while investments from the budget into national economies are miserable.

According to the study, most money is allocated to education: in the KBR, it makes 38 percent of the budget, in the KChR – 32 percent; and in North Ossetia – 35 percent.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.