Moscow - Russia plans to spend more than $50bn from its emergency Reserve Fund in 2015 as falling oil prices and a slumping economy cause the government's deficit to rise.
First Deputy Finance Minister Tatiana Nesterenko said on Friday the government would ask parliament to allow the spending of up to $52.36bn from the Reserve Fund in 2015, including 500 billion roubles already envisaged in the budget.
The increase means that Russia could spend well over half of the fund, currently worth $85bn, in a single year - a rapid run-down of the fiscal buffers that underlines the precarious state of government finances.