Sanctions against Russia will be long term, authorities to keep anti-crisis agenda with focus on medium-term tasks - minister
MOSCOW. Sept 28 (Interfax) - Sanctions against Russia will be long term, and the government will keep an anti-crisis agenda and concentrate on medium-term tasks for adapting the economy, Russian Economic Development Minister Maxim Reshetnikov said at the State Duma on Wednesday.
"The low point in the decline of the Russian economy will be passed in the fourth quarter of this year. GDP will decrease 2.9% in 2022. Investments will show a decline of up to 2% after falling moderately in the second half of the year. Inflation will slow to 12.4% at the end of the year after a peak of 17.8% in April and 13.9% today," Reshetnikov said.
"We're operating on the premise that sanctions will be long term in nature. Therefore, without scrapping the anti-crisis agenda, we're transitioning to systemic, medium-term objectives to adapt the economy. For this, we're wrapping up some programs within the framework of the plan [of initial actions] that have already achieved their objectives. Others we're extending, and others still we're making a part of systemic work," he said.
The main focus right now is developing domestic production, Reshetnikov said. "Interim and investment imports are important for this. Expedited customs procedures, payment deferrals on customs duties, and the investment incentives mechanism will continue to be in effect for their further recovery," he said.
"Another measure that has been highly appreciated by business is the moratorium on inspections. There were almost 71.5% fewer checks from March to September than in the same period of last year. There were more precautionary visits than there were checks for the first time. We're going to further decrease excessive monitoring. Already thanks to the development of a risk-oriented approach, where the frequency of monitoring directly depends on the site's level of risk," Reshetnikov said.
The Economic Development Ministry has submitted a resolution to the government to develop such an approach, and "monitoring bodies will now include in inspection plans only those sites where work is connected with high and extremely high risks," he said.
The government has worked on developing strategic priorities in parallel with anti-crisis tasks, Reshetnikov said.
"A series of sectoral strategic sessions led by the government chair have taken place. Based on them, a scenario has been prepared for accelerated adaptation of the economy. It anticipates that the economy will overcome decline in 2024 and further economic growth will resume due to domestic demand, consumer and investment," he said.