The government has adjusted the subsidies available through the Preferential Loans Program for Small and Medium Enterprises, known as program 1764, reducing the cap from 9.75 percent to 6 percent in the context of a record high central bank rate recently recorded at 21 percent. This change comes as officials seek to balance subsidised credit with broader monetary constraints. [official briefing]
The 1764 program now carries a subsidy level that stands more than twelve percentage points above the central bank rate. Banks will be able to compensate for more than six percent of the income earned on SME loans through subsidies. The industrial mortgage scheme remains in the fourteen to sixteen percent range, and the conditions tied to returns from initial public offerings are kept, but for 2025 the financing limits will be set by the Finance Ministry. [official briefing]
The total cap under the Minsk program will be one hundred billion rubles for firms in priority industries. The key rate has risen to twenty one percent. In twenty twenty four, fifteen point six trillion rubles were spent subsidizing the sixty five preferential programs. [official briefing]
Vladimir Klimanov from Ranepa argued that old formulas did not account for higher risk, calling for a modernization of risk assessment models used in subsidy distribution. [Ranepa analysis]
Subsidies to banks will be listed monthly, not once a year. This should prevent the rapid depletion of the borders as in twenty twenty three when funds ran out by July. [policy briefing]
Oleg Solntsev of TSAKP believes that monthly boundaries will create loan queues and that the business will face uncertainty. [industry commentary]
January thirty reports indicate that Russia will launch a preferential credit program for small and medium sized enterprises and freelancers, signaling broader access to subsidised credit for private sector players. [market update]
At the start, central bank officials described the condition of reducing the key rate as part of the policy framework, signaling that rate cuts would be aligned with economic signals and financial stability goals. [central bank briefing]