Putin held a meeting with Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Head of the Presidential Administration Anton Vaino, First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov, Vice President Marat Khusnullin, Deputy President Maxim Oreshkin, Ministers of Finance and Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov and Anton Siluanov to discuss economic issues. Elvira Nabiullina, Governor of the Central Bank of Russia.
With words Mr. President, in the first quarter, the Russian budget was renewed by an amount that corresponds to last year’s level.
“Economic dynamics are also reflected in the budget indicators. In the first quarter of this year, revenues from the country’s consolidated budget exceeded 13 trillion rubles, which is in line with last year’s figures, but overall the dynamics are good”
said.
According to the federal budget law of 2023 and the planning period 2024-2025, budget revenues for 2023 are planned to be at the level of 26.13 trillion rubles. (17.4% of GDP), expenses – 29,056 trillion rubles. (19.4% of GDP). In the January-February period, budget revenues decreased by 25% compared to the previous year and amounted to 3.163 trillion.
The President noted that a larger resource inflow is expected from oil and gas revenues to the budget in the second quarter. He said oil and gas revenues fell by 1.3 trillion rubles in the first quarter. In the first quarter of this year, the volume of non-oil and gas revenues increased by approximately 14%. The president attributed the decline in oil and gas revenues to the high base and characteristics of the price environment in global markets last year. Putin stressed that external risk factors for the economy have not disappeared.
The President also said that restrictions on the export of capital from Russia reduce the threat to the financial system.
“In the second quarter of last year, the Bank of Russia and the government imposed restrictions on capital exports. This made it possible to reduce threats to our financial system, ensure its stability, and then, based on an objective picture, some restrictions were removed or weakened,” he said.
indicators
According to the president, the Russian economy is growing, the government has already revised its forecast of socio-economic development in the direction of improvement.
“According to the results of April, Russia’s GDP will increase significantly in real terms. <…> Against the backdrop of positive statistics, colleagues revised their estimates and significantly improved them. The forecast of socio-economic development for the coming years should be as objective as possible. This is important for both the public administration system and the entire country’s economy.
He reminded that while preparing the current budget, the government was moving from an estimate of 0.8% annual decline in GDP.
The President said that annual inflation indicators were at the level of 3.3% as of April 3 and it is expected to fall below 3% by the end of the month.
“As of April 3, we talked to the Governor of the Central Bank recently about this issue, and he confirmed that inflation has dropped to 3.3 percent on an annual basis,” Putin said.
The president urged people to refrain from accelerating and slowing inflation as it could adversely affect business plans and citizens’ incomes and economic activity in general. “And this, of course, affects the incomes of citizens and the volume of budget revenues,” said Putin.
business activity
Putin expressed hope that economic activity in Russia will continue to improve, as evidenced by the business activity index. In March, this figure was the third highest in history with 56.8 points. According to the President, this shows the growing optimism and positive attitude of domestic trade.
He also cited data showing that retail trade turnover has increased by slightly less than 25% since the beginning of April. The increase in loading on the railway also increased – in March this figure was about 2%, and in early April – 3.6%.
However, Putin pointed out that even taking into account historically minimal unemployment, many regions lack workers.
“There are not enough workers in many areas, given the historically minimum unemployment rate of 3.5% across the country. There are three main tasks to be solved here. The first is to use the personnel potential of the regions and settlements where the unemployment rate is still high, and we have such regions.
said.
Secondly, according to him, production automation technologies need to be actively applied in all sectors of the economy and in the social sphere. He also called for greater investment in the training of specialists in the most important and sought-after occupations, and “it is particularly important to support short-term programs” where one can acquire new knowledge and change occupations.