Putin: Russia is not collecting reserves in order to “sit on them and do nothing” – Politics
NOVO-OGAREVO, September 25. / TASS /. Russia does not need reserves in order to “sit on them”, but it must also be spent carefully. This opinion was expressed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday at a meeting via video link with the leaders of political parties held following the elections to the State Duma of the VIII convocation.
“We are not collecting reserves in order to sit on them and do nothing,” Putin said. Infrastructure: road construction, railway construction, airfield networks, and so on. “
The President agrees that “to do this [расходовать резервы] The presence of so-called airbags enables us to respond promptly and appropriately to the problems faced by the country in difficult times. We also used them actively when we encountered covid and the need to overcome the consequences of the pandemic, “the head of state added.
According to him, the “safety cushion” is also necessary when taking into account the safe risks “which are used for us by absolutely non-market methods.” “To a certain extent, reserves have been spent and are still being spent on import substitution,” Putin recalled. funds in import substitution measures, pushed the development, including of high-tech methods of its own production. “
Putin expressed the hope that on all issues, reserves and “safety cushions”, during the discussion in parliament, a golden mean will be found.
Planning budget expenses
Commenting on the possibility of increasing the expenditure side of the budget, the head of state noted that “everyone wants to spend more money, and so do I.”
The President added that he will have a meeting with the government on the next budget, and another meeting will be held in the near future. The discussions are not going in the direction of decreasing the expenditure side, but in the direction of increasing, Putin continued. According to him, in this regard, several points are necessary, in particular, the impact on the macroeconomics and inflation. “Now she [инфляция] our forecast is higher and according to various estimates it will be slightly higher, somewhere around 6%, “the head of state explained.
“There is no point in implementing many of our projects.” “The Central Bank will increase rates, and this will help accelerate the pace of economic growth,” Putin summed up.
Economic aid to the pandemic
The head of state noted that despite all the difficulties, Russia managed to return to the pre-crisis level of the economy. He recalled that a number of decisions were made related to the areas of production and labor collectives.
“We helped small and medium-sized businesses, helped those people who temporarily lost their jobs, our unemployment rate rose. All these measures allowed us to return to the pre-crisis level, we did it much earlier than many other countries. [можно] count, and Russia is one of those countries, “Putin said.
According to the president, it is necessary to continue thinking about raising the level of citizens’ incomes. ” “This must be done, of course, not by distributing funds from the budget, but on the basis of economic growth,” – Putin is. In this regard, he added, special attention should be paid to changing the structure of the economy in the field of increasing the role of high-tech production sectors.