KEY CONCLUSIONS
Russian economy has quickly adapted to the changes during the pandemic
«As for the Russian economic policy during this pandemic, both the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank acted early and decisively, this led to a contraction of Russian economy being relatively modest compared to what happened across the world. <...> During the pandemic the inequality has not gone up because Russia managed to quickly adapt to the new situation. People are at the centre of policies,» Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund.
«Everybody knows about the budget rule in Russia; next year we are switching to normal budget policy,» Anton Siluanov, Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation.
«We have a correct macroeconomic structure with the independent Central Bank, with the budget rule that is followed by the government, we have to stick to this structure; we have a very low government debt level which indicates the efficiency of the monetary policy,» Maxim Oreshkin, Aide to the President of the Russian Federation.
‘Green’ agenda as a development opportunity for Russia
«We cannot ignore this trend in the green agenda,» Anton Siluanov, Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation.
«This is one of the most powerful trends,» Elvira Nabiullina, Governor, The Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Bank of Russia).
«It is important that Russia occupies one of the key positions in this emerging market,» Maxim Oreshkin, Aide to the President of the Russian Federation.
PROBLEMS
Issue of price regulation, inflation expectations and lack of investment projects
«Recently the question of price regulation has been the most relevant one,» Maksim Reshetnikov, Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation.
«In Russia, we have increased inflation. <...> Inflation expectations are at a four-year high and have been at an elevated level for several months. It changes people’s behaviour,» Elvira Nabiullina, Governor, The Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Bank of Russia).
«The government has prepared suggestions on investing in the National Wealth Fund. <...> After the Presidential address we have new opportunities related to budget infrastructure credits. As the result of restructuring budget loans, a fairly large amount of funds has emerged. Now we see that regions have applied for just 90 billion out of 420 billion roubles. Under current circumstances, we might face the lack of high-quality investment projects,» Maksim Reshetnikov, Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation.
Companies switching to the ‘green’ format
«The demand for metals, copper, will grow, so it is important that Russian mining industry changes its structure,» Maxim Oreshkin, Aide to the President of the Russian Federation.
«We need to make sure that companies producing raw materials are prepared for this, they will have to rebuild their mining plans into production plans at some point,» Anton Siluanov, Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation.
SOLUTIONS
Stepping back from administrative measures, policy changes
«Private and public companies should be able to be competitive and be put on equal footing,» Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund.
«We have stepped away from administrative measures. This does not mean that we are not negotiating with industry associations, on 1 June one of the agreements on sugar terminated,» Maksim Reshetnikov, Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation.
«We can succeed in overcoming such complicated situations by closely coordinating the work of all monetary authorities. The Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank understand this perfectly well and thoroughly synchronize their activities in relation to monetary and budget policy. And we will continue doing it. <...> We are switching to a neutral policy, we are doing everything to normalize the inflation back to the planned levels reducing the interest rates and relaunching the economy with the help of private investment,» Anton Siluanov, Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation.
«It is necessary to build long-term predictable regulation, because such regulation stimulates investment activity,» Maxim Oreshkin, Aide to the President of the Russian Federation.
New law and directions for the ‘green’ agenda development
«There are two directions, this is the market development, the taxonomy is the key thing: the criteria describing what green projects are and what transitional projects are. The corresponding infrastructure, verifiers, trade platforms, incentives for both ‘green’ and transformational stock and bonds. Probably, the development of the stock exchange infrastructure for trading carbon units,» Elvira Nabiullina, Governor, The Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Bank of Russia).
«The law limiting greenhouse gas emissions was adopted yesterday in the second and third readings. We have made a big step forward, we have set the record straight. In the first half of next year, the task is to make the whole basic configuration work,» Maksim Reshetnikov, Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation.
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