Russian stock market steady, but its potential not fully realized yet - Putin
MOSCOW. Oct 15 (Interfax) - The potential of the Russian stock market is not fully realized, it is necessary to raise private money but do so neatly, especially when it comes to pension funds, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
"This is very important and it is, certainly, one of our goals, to incentivize and strengthen our stock market. Unfortunately, we have yet to fully achieve the goals we have set ourselves, though it is strengthening. Nevertheless, it has, at any rate, been steady and functioning reliably. But we are, of course, setting ourselves more ambitious goals," Putin said at a meeting with Business Russia members, commenting on HeadHunter deputy general director Maria Komarova's proposal to develop a concept of an ecosystem of growth funds whose investments would bring closer to the goal of increasing the stock market capitalization to 66% of GDP by 2030.
"As regards attracting private money, you are right, of course, for we can see other economies developing and how important it is to create development funds, growth funds that you talked about, and attracting private money, various corporate pensions funds, and so on. But it is necessary to be very neat here," Putin said.
"On the one hand, we need to be proactive, and on the other, be very careful from the standpoint of attracting citizens' funds, these should be reliably protected. All the more so if we talk about pension funds. On this, everything this should under reinforced-concrete guarantee. And we need to think through every step in this direction," Putin said.
Commenting on Komarova's remarks about foreign capital's departure from the Russian market, (which growth funds are supposed to replace as a source of long-term money), Putin said that, "it is necessary to be very careful too." Because foreign capital does not always play a positive role, especially in crises, "it is right, of course, to be looking for our own sources of finance," Putin said. "These we do have and are not using efficiently. But it is necessary to act extremely carefully," Putin said.
A certain portion of pension money can already be invested in stocks, the head of Russia's Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina said. It is necessary to address the shortage of good-quality projects where long-term money could be invested, she said.
