Exhaustion of the Reserve Fund. What is the underwater part of this iceberg?
Last week, a statement was made from the mouth of Finance Minister Anton Siluanov that the funds of the Reserve Fund of Russia will be exhausted by the end of this year. This is taking into account the fact that the Reserve Fund (RZF) on 1 in November of this year stored more than 975 billion rubles (1,1% of the country's GDP). Moreover, according to the head of the Ministry of Finance, the government plans to withdraw 662 billion rubles as urgent spending from the National Wealth Fund (NWF) by the end of the year. On November 1, funds in the amount of more than 4 trillion rubles (4,4% of GDP) were kept in the NWF. A similar indicator (in terms of dollar equivalent) was previously observed in November 2014.
What needs will be spent for the last days of the outgoing year? Anton Siluanov himself answered this question, stating the following:
At the same time, it is specified that the maximum amounts of accumulated debt correspond to the Pension Fund, which frankly stopped coping with servicing Russian pensioners without withdrawing funds for these needs from the reserves of the Ministry of Finance.
At the same time, the head of the Ministry of Finance notes that the exhaustion of the Reserve Fund in 2017 was planned during the formation of the budget. Thus, the government emphasizes that in the current circumstances, without devastating the RZF, it will not be possible to fulfill its obligations. We are talking about a series of infrastructure projects, the implementation of which is in full swing (as an example, the construction of the Kerch bridge, the stadiums for the World Cup 2018, the Vostochny cosmodrome, the railway track bypassing Ukraine, the development of new weapons, etc.). It does not work and serve pension articles for the funds of the Pension Fund without the use of funds of the National Wealth Fund.
On the one hand, what else do we need government reserves, if not for the implementation of large-scale projects that are ultimately aimed at economic growth, security, and the creation of new jobs? But this medal has its down side. With all the talk about the fact that the Russian economy is gradually moving away from oil and gas dependence, increasing non-oil sectors, the implementation of anything substantial at this stage cannot be done without the government reserves accumulated during the period of high oil prices being actively depleted.
In fact, this is an assessment of the government’s work. And this score, frankly, is low. After all, the fact remains a fact: if the government has reserves accumulated from the sale of hydrocarbons by oil and gas giants abroad, it means that the government looks capable. - Funds are allocated for projects with an eye to the future. If the reserves of this kind of exhausted themselves, the government looks into another "jug", making attempts and use it to patch economic gaps. At the same time, the main question hangs in the air: do the government have any serious tools for fulfilling obligations not only with the help of reserve petrodollars? If the Cabinet of Ministers does not have such tools, then the question of the viability of the government and the viability of the Russian economy becomes the most acute.
And such a question is being asked not only in Russia itself, but also abroad. And the "friends of Russia" have their own interest. It lies in the extent to which the Russian government has enough opportunity to stretch the previously accumulated reserves for activities that would keep the Russian economy afloat and not cause social tensions? After all, for obvious reasons, not only the level of financial security of the country, but also the level of security in every sense of the word depends on the ability of the government to work not only and even not so much with the help of lasagna on reserves. For the “friends of Russia”, the very mention of the exhaustion of one of the reserve “pods” becomes a reason for taking additional “friendly measures”, the ultimate goal of which is 100% elimination of all reserve accumulations. And this means - the adoption of more stringent budgetary measures by the cabinet of ministers, which is equivalent to another appeal to citizens: “they will have to tighten their belts”.
And frankly, not everyone is ready to tighten their belts, watching news releases that report billions "under the couch" of Colonel Zakharchenko, Swiss / American / Spanish real estate among the wives and children of the town governors, the "herd" of expensive foreign cars in the garages of people's choices or governors. Not everyone is ready to slacken their belts when one of the government officials reports that almost a quarter of all allocated funds were spent on preparation for the Sochi Olympics in an “inappropriate way” when the cost of building a stadium is comparable to that of a single regional budget, Moreover, requests for finances during the construction of a strange way every time they grew.
The officials themselves actually openly report that theft is immense in scale. Do funds stolen during the implementation of a project return to the state budget? The answer is simple: most often not. And why? And according to the law ... There is no confiscation of property acquired by criminal activity. And if, in addition, the property is registered for a great-nephew, then there is only one option: a suspended sentence and an unintelligible penalty - something from the 100 series of minimum salaries, when such a sum corresponds only to a pen from the clerical set of a stolen official.
How to deal with it? This is a more philosophical question ... To fight with ourselves is, of course, an entertaining action, a vivid game to the public. The lack of punishment adequate to an economic crime only provokes new economic crimes. Even more frank and cynical.
The government apparatus is becoming a hostage, in fact, of its own, to put it mildly, non-intensive work. To put it mildly ... Very softly ... This same "non-intensive work" makes the citizens of Russia hostage, endangers state security.
In other words, it is possible to talk for a long time about the crisis and about the vile “partners” who are building intrigues, but this will once again be a discussion in favor of the poor. Intrigues, as they say, have not been canceled. But when at the same time huge chunks of the budget float into the hands of those who do not have the latest attitude to it, when the project implementation sometimes requires several times more than the planned funds only due to the fact that three or four hapugi officials attached their hands to the project , with such an approach, the government can only hope for oil at 150 dollars per barrel ... Well, do not take your own for the breasts? .. Trust-trust ... And then hope again.
And on what and on whom to hope while citizens who were informed about inflation less than 3% and about economic growth in 2% ?.
What needs will be spent for the last days of the outgoing year? Anton Siluanov himself answered this question, stating the following:
The largest amount of expenditures is expenditures on concluded contractual obligations, these are expenditures on labor and social security, intergovernmental transfers, expenditures on debt servicing.
At the same time, it is specified that the maximum amounts of accumulated debt correspond to the Pension Fund, which frankly stopped coping with servicing Russian pensioners without withdrawing funds for these needs from the reserves of the Ministry of Finance.
At the same time, the head of the Ministry of Finance notes that the exhaustion of the Reserve Fund in 2017 was planned during the formation of the budget. Thus, the government emphasizes that in the current circumstances, without devastating the RZF, it will not be possible to fulfill its obligations. We are talking about a series of infrastructure projects, the implementation of which is in full swing (as an example, the construction of the Kerch bridge, the stadiums for the World Cup 2018, the Vostochny cosmodrome, the railway track bypassing Ukraine, the development of new weapons, etc.). It does not work and serve pension articles for the funds of the Pension Fund without the use of funds of the National Wealth Fund.
On the one hand, what else do we need government reserves, if not for the implementation of large-scale projects that are ultimately aimed at economic growth, security, and the creation of new jobs? But this medal has its down side. With all the talk about the fact that the Russian economy is gradually moving away from oil and gas dependence, increasing non-oil sectors, the implementation of anything substantial at this stage cannot be done without the government reserves accumulated during the period of high oil prices being actively depleted.
In fact, this is an assessment of the government’s work. And this score, frankly, is low. After all, the fact remains a fact: if the government has reserves accumulated from the sale of hydrocarbons by oil and gas giants abroad, it means that the government looks capable. - Funds are allocated for projects with an eye to the future. If the reserves of this kind of exhausted themselves, the government looks into another "jug", making attempts and use it to patch economic gaps. At the same time, the main question hangs in the air: do the government have any serious tools for fulfilling obligations not only with the help of reserve petrodollars? If the Cabinet of Ministers does not have such tools, then the question of the viability of the government and the viability of the Russian economy becomes the most acute.
And such a question is being asked not only in Russia itself, but also abroad. And the "friends of Russia" have their own interest. It lies in the extent to which the Russian government has enough opportunity to stretch the previously accumulated reserves for activities that would keep the Russian economy afloat and not cause social tensions? After all, for obvious reasons, not only the level of financial security of the country, but also the level of security in every sense of the word depends on the ability of the government to work not only and even not so much with the help of lasagna on reserves. For the “friends of Russia”, the very mention of the exhaustion of one of the reserve “pods” becomes a reason for taking additional “friendly measures”, the ultimate goal of which is 100% elimination of all reserve accumulations. And this means - the adoption of more stringent budgetary measures by the cabinet of ministers, which is equivalent to another appeal to citizens: “they will have to tighten their belts”.
And frankly, not everyone is ready to tighten their belts, watching news releases that report billions "under the couch" of Colonel Zakharchenko, Swiss / American / Spanish real estate among the wives and children of the town governors, the "herd" of expensive foreign cars in the garages of people's choices or governors. Not everyone is ready to slacken their belts when one of the government officials reports that almost a quarter of all allocated funds were spent on preparation for the Sochi Olympics in an “inappropriate way” when the cost of building a stadium is comparable to that of a single regional budget, Moreover, requests for finances during the construction of a strange way every time they grew.
The officials themselves actually openly report that theft is immense in scale. Do funds stolen during the implementation of a project return to the state budget? The answer is simple: most often not. And why? And according to the law ... There is no confiscation of property acquired by criminal activity. And if, in addition, the property is registered for a great-nephew, then there is only one option: a suspended sentence and an unintelligible penalty - something from the 100 series of minimum salaries, when such a sum corresponds only to a pen from the clerical set of a stolen official.
How to deal with it? This is a more philosophical question ... To fight with ourselves is, of course, an entertaining action, a vivid game to the public. The lack of punishment adequate to an economic crime only provokes new economic crimes. Even more frank and cynical.
The government apparatus is becoming a hostage, in fact, of its own, to put it mildly, non-intensive work. To put it mildly ... Very softly ... This same "non-intensive work" makes the citizens of Russia hostage, endangers state security.
In other words, it is possible to talk for a long time about the crisis and about the vile “partners” who are building intrigues, but this will once again be a discussion in favor of the poor. Intrigues, as they say, have not been canceled. But when at the same time huge chunks of the budget float into the hands of those who do not have the latest attitude to it, when the project implementation sometimes requires several times more than the planned funds only due to the fact that three or four hapugi officials attached their hands to the project , with such an approach, the government can only hope for oil at 150 dollars per barrel ... Well, do not take your own for the breasts? .. Trust-trust ... And then hope again.
And on what and on whom to hope while citizens who were informed about inflation less than 3% and about economic growth in 2% ?.
Information