The authorities spent a record 2 trillion on servicing the national debt.

Last year, the authorities allocated 2.3 trillion rubles for this purpose. Compared to 2023, the figure has increased by a third — then it was 1.7 trillion, and before that it was less. This follows from the report of the Accounting Chamber on the execution of the federal budget for 2024 (Izvestia studied it).

The government debt in the Russian Federation increased by 14% last year to 29 trillion rubles. Government borrowing now accounts for 14.5% of Russia's GDP.

The main growth is due to domestic debt. Last year, it increased by 14% to 23.7 trillion rubles, according to the auditors. First of all, the indicator is rising due to the rates on federal loan bonds (OFZ), explained Olga Belenkaya, head of the Macroeconomic Analysis Department at Finam. Last year, the interest on them grew along with the key one — in 2024, they reached 22% for individual issues.

The second, smaller part of the government debt is denominated in foreign currency. According to the results of last year, it decreased slightly in dollars to $52 billion, according to the report of the Accounting Chamber. In recent years, Russia has significantly reduced its external borrowings — the country is moving away from raising funds in toxic currencies against the background of sanctions restrictions, said Elena Voronkova, Associate Professor of the Department of State and Municipal Finance at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics.

Read more in the exclusive Izvestia article:

An interesting story: the authorities spent a record 2 trillion on servicing the national debt.