Russia’s federal budget balance sank to a deficit of 2.4 trillion roubles ($29 billion) in the first quarter of the year as Moscow spent heavily and energy revenues fell, the finance ministry said on Friday.

In the same quarter of 2022 Russia posted a surplus of 1.13 trillion roubles. Since then significant outlays to support its military campaign in Ukraine and a wall of Western sanctions on its oil and gas exports have hit government coffers.

The finance ministry stopped publishing monthly budget fulfilment data last year, but Friday’s figures suggested that Russia achieved a surplus of 181 billion roubles in March but this apparently followed deficits of 821 billion roubles in February and 1.76