Fiscal rules as an instrument of balanced budget policy

Abstract

In the article the authors attempt to understand the extent to which fiscal rules that were applied earlier in Russia and are in force at the present time are systemic and balanced, which requirements must be met by an effective fiscal rule in current conditions. So, according to the authors, fiscal rules should allow to adapt the budget to the requirements of financing structural changes in the economy and to maintain control over long-term budgetary sustainability. However, the new fiscal rules, introduced in July 2017, imposing excessively tight restrictions on the volume of federal budget expenditures, will not allow to provide the necessary amount of expenditures for economic development and financing of structural reforms. In this regard, a consistent transformation of the current version of fiscal rules to the framework on the basis of a zero structural balance is justified. The preparation of federal budget, balanced on a cyclical basis, can provide a relatively stable level of expenditure, regardless of the volatility of oil prices and the economic cycle, thereby realizing the countercyclical nature of fiscal policy and reducing the budget vulnerability to internal and external shocks. The effectiveness of the proposed fiscal rule is verified through modeling on data for 2007-2016. In particular, if we had used the proposed rule starting from the second half of the 2000s, it would have been possible to curb the growth of federal budget expenditures that began with the anti-crisis measures of 2009, halve the level of public debt and accumulate sovereign reserves in the amount of up to 25% of GDP. At the same time, the proposed rule requires high quality of macroeconomic and budgetary forecasting.