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dear colleagues ladies and gentlemen friends I welcome all of you representatives of domestic and
foreign business circles to Moscow to this forum which is called Russia calling it was created as Andre
leanovich said several years ago and it seems to me that it has become such a good and
traditional platform for the exchange of opinions between colleagues and business today I would like to dwell on the
problem that we are solving in the field of finance and
investment and I would like to give a general assessment of how our country's economy is developing in the current
difficult conditions just in general terms because my colleagues who are here
to my right will tell you all this in
detail they really formulate and implement this agenda you
know now the entire global system of economic relations is going through a stage of fundamental and as just said
irreversible changes they are due to the fact that the previous model of
globalization is being replaced by a multi-polar model Andre leanovich Coston now
remembered the former un Secretary General Mr Kofi Anan Kofi was a brilliant Diplomat a
very good decent person I can say this for sure
he spoke sincerely and indeed then it seemed impossible to deny it strictly speaking
there was nothing to deny because globalization existed and it developed the only question
is that it was understood by all people differently and the goals that people
set were also different people like Kofi Anan
believed that it should benefit everyone
that everyone should be placed on an equal footing nothing like this actually
happened in practice this one country which I just mentioned
believed that the model of globalization should take shape differently with the United States at
its head Coston now said that they are sharing with their
allies no in practice it turned out they exploit their allies in the
same way as all other participants in economic activity this is what it led to earlier and what it leads to
today I'll talk about this a little later but we want to create a new model
that truly Democratic
one one where real and Fair competition really prevails among all participants in economic
activity this change in the landscape of the the world economy the emergence of new leaders is an objective and in many
ways a natural process as a matter of fact in life in the history of mankind it has always been like this at all
times and in all spheres it has always been this way someone develops then dies
down new leaders appear so it is in the global economy today however the elite
of Western countries those who find themselves at the top of this process are trying to
slow it down artificially restrain growth as they believe on the global
periphery which they are accustomed to exploit use as a resource as a source of
rent simply as a colony to do this they resort to sanctions restrictions for
example they Rock the political situation and they provoke conflicts in
entire macro regions in an attempt to maintain their elusive dominance Western Elites have gone so far as to abolish
the very principles of the market economy that they love to talk about when this system of so-called
globalization was taking shape we remember people here probably remember what was said then that everyone should
be on equal terms everyone should be placed in such equal conditions borders should be open borders should not be
closed under any circumstances how is that this contradicts the ideas of global development as soon as
competitors appeared bang and they immediately began to close their own borders in one second with a snap of
their fingers and it's all these are their principles today
they have already moved on their efforts have crossed out some seemingly unshakable postulates for
example property rights European jurisdictions which until recently were
considered safe which were so-called safe havens have actually ceased to be
so now the principle of friend or fo works here as in military aircraft where
someone else can be robbed left with nothing and his assets companies Enterprises can be blocked taken away
and even liquidated as a result of sabotage as was the case with Nord
streams this is what competition looks like now in a rules-based world who needs such rules it is obvious that
these actions are destroying the system of financial trade and economic relations that has been built over
decades including and above all of course by the West Itself by the way the financial infrastructure which is based
on the predominance of the dollar and the Euro conducting transactions exclusively through Western Banks and
the Swift system is also discredited today its place is successfully occupied by a system of transactions in National
currencies of course there is still a lot to be done here this is an obvious
thing but this is happening and this process will only gain momentum I will
say more the Western Financial system is clearly becoming outdated in terms of Technology it has rested on its Laurels
for so long it has become so accustomed to Monopoly and exclusivity to the lack
of real Alternatives in fact to the habit of not changing anything that it has become archaic or at least it is
becoming archaic crossborder payments are increasingly using much more advanced
Solutions including those based on blockchain and Central Bank digital currencies according to
experts in the coming years this will lead to a real Revolution which will finally undermine
the Monopoly of large Western Banks and they themselves as we see are also not
in the best condition at least some of them that's for sure I would like to emphasize again the world has entered an
era of dramatic changes and serious challenges not only for individual companies and industries but also for
entire countries and regions of the world only a strong stable and I want to
emphasize I definitely want to emphasize and emphasize
this sovereign country can successfully pass this stage and become one of the centers of growth in the new global
economy this is extremely important this is something that is interconnected in
economics and politics moreover a country with powerful industrial technological
infrastructural human and financial potential with a dynamic own Market a
country that clearly knows and knows how to defend political economic trade
interests the interests of national business and its foreign business partners as it turns out there are such
countries despite any external pressure chattering of teeth knocking on the
table whispering in the ear there are people there are leaders of countries
powerful countries at that who do not succumb to this pressure and who are guided first of all by their
own national interests they fit into the model we propose for development we have proven
that we are capable of responding to the most difficult challenges the Russian economy is
effectively coping with external attempts to restrain the development of our country the key was the fundamental
as it turned out margin of safety that we have been building over the past 20 years and especially since
2014 after the introduction of the first large scale sanctions against Russia then we focused on developing the
consumer sector strengthening the financial sector and creating our own payment
infrastructure let me remind you that one of the first decisions of
the West last year was to disconnect Russian Banks from the Visa and MasterCard systems they hoped that this
would make it impossible to pay for goods and services that it would collapse payments and therefore it would
paralyze our country's banking sector as some Western colleagues put
it they wanted to make our citizens suffer these were the humanistic plans
they had for Russian
citizens they wanted to create problems for millions of Russian families however what happened in practice citizens and
businesses actually did not notice the seamless transition to the National payment system which today is
successfully operating and developing at the same time we stopped paying commissions to
Western companies they only received less than
what they could have earned in Russia of course we have something to work on here probably the chairman of the central
bank elvar abelina will talk about this of course we have to work in any case
the goals set by our ill-wishers were clearly not achieved by them on the contrary we are simply strengthening our
sovereignty in this area and we are doing this quite confidently this is just one example in finance in industry
in the consumer Market we are step by step abandoning imposed Services Brands and intermediaries in
essence we are actively developing our own market and this of course leads to systemic positive
results thus over the 10 months of this
year Russia's gross domestic product grew by 3.2% today it is already higher than it
was before the Western sanctions attack it is expected that by the end of this year at least we all really hope so GDP
will increase by at least 3.5% all the people here are literate you will agree that this is a good
indicator for the Russian economy Russia is the largest economy in
Europe and in terms of growth rates it is now ahead of all the leading countries of the European Union at the
same time in the structure of Russia's economic growth an increasingly large share is occupied by the so-called basic
non-raw materials Industries these are manufacturing Industries transport Logistics
construction information Communications housing and communal
services for example in the second quarter of this year they accounted for more than half of the
economy's growth 54% to be more precise another 44% are so-called
supporting Industries trade catering and other Professional
Services and only 2% I want to emphasize only 2% came from mining now
let someone tell us that Russia is supposedly a gas station as just
recently they tried to talk about it yes of course there are a number of sectors that have not yet fully recovered that
have not fully adapted to the new conditions for example this is woodworking there are reasons for
this it was largely focused on European markets by the
way the situation in Wood processing is also changing for the better for example
in the automotive industry it was going through difficult times we had a large dependence on
components this is certainly one of the affected Industries but gradually it is also emerging from the crisis separately
I would like to note that despite objective difficulties Russian business has shown itself to be extremely
responsible and taking this opportunity I would like to thank my colleagues for this they have not only retained their
workforces they have established new Supply chains but they are also launching projects in the domestic
consumer Market in the high-tech sector of the economy in tourism and in other Industries they are actively occupying
niches that were vacated after a number of Western companies left our Market did they think everything would collapse
didn't they nothing of the sort happened we intercepted everything from them and went
forward and our entrepreneurs act very confidently what do I want to
emphasize we are interested in keeping our Market open and competitive this is the key to
development an incentive for the qualitative I will repeat Russia is not expelling anyone and it is not closing
its s off from anyone from anyone many foreign Enterprises and
organizations despite pressure from their governments and their officials stated that they want to continue
working in our country we welcome this such colleagues of ours despite external
pressure either changed their name and maintained their presence in the market or they simply handed over everything to
management to be honest with the right to buy back that's all God bless them and let them work we will only support
this you know they can throw loud slogans and
threats at us as much as they want but in the end this is the business of some Western
politicians who intend to abolish Russia but all this hype cannot cancel the immutable fact working with Russia and
in Russia is profitable it was profitable and now it is profitable and it will be profitable and this fact has
been confirmed over Centuries by the experience of generations of merchants entrepreneurs and businessmen around the
world from the beginning of March 2022 to November of this year the number of
foreign companies in Russia I want to draw your attention to this despite all the pressure from the
political Elites of the West the number of foreign structures and business structures operating in Russia
has not decreased can you imagine I myself was surprised to
discover this when I looked at the materials it is increased as of March 1
2022 24,100 foreign organizations were registered in Russia as of November one
of this year there were almost 1,500 more of them namely 20
5,600 this is an indicator of Readiness and desire to work in
Russia the growth of the domestic market and the expansion of Russia's contacts with the countries of Asia the Middle
East Southern EUR Asia Latin America and Africa opens up additional
opportunities for our economy for almost any business I'll give you a few
illustrative figures over the past year and a half the the number of domestic Light
Industry companies has grown by 80% the number of furniture manufacturers increased by 30% the number of
children's toy manufacturers increased by 20% during the same time that is over
the last year and a half the number of trademarks owned by Russian companies has increased by more than a third what
does this mean that investments in projects to produce such
products to create new Enterprises and jobs throughout our country are profitable and profitable thus over the
nine months of this year the profits of large and mediumsized companies in the real sector exceeded 26 trillion rubles
it turned out that it was about a quarter more than it was a year
earlier this is a good indicator business does not just earn profit it invests in development which means it
believes in the prospects in the future of our economy in the second quarter of this year investments in fixed Capital
increased by 12.6% and in the third quarter already by
13.3% Investments are growing what does it mean everyone present here understands perfectly well what this
means this means that conditions are being created for future development in the medium
term this is an obvious thing it is imperative to support growing business activity and first of all it is
necessary to ensure the availability of financial resources for business and those areas that cover the needs of the
domestic market and Export demand I know that now there will be talk here about the interest rate of the Central Bank
colleagues will debate among themselves before your eyes this will be both useful and
indicative but what do I want to say yes there are always such disputes about the interest rate about business activity
this is all understandable but the figures I spoke about indic that in
general the desired direction of development and decision making by the financial and economic authorities of
our country is still located and is generally moving in the right direction the main thing is that conditions are
being created for the effective structural transformation of our economy for increasing labor productivity and
for increasing the incomes of citizens for improving the quity of Life income growth is also a very
important indicator real wages have so far increased by
7% real disposable income of the population has increased by 4.4% am I
right is it true that's the way it is this is also a very important factor
not just in social policy it is an important factor even
from the point of view of Economic Development the internal state of society tune to
positive work this is important for increasing labor productivity as I said
for increasing income and so on it is necessary to create the widest
range of instruments for financing Investments designed for any
scale from small Enterprises to large and major systemically important companies what is extremely important is
that these tools must be customized to the specifics of the business take into account the phase of its development and
of course the characteristics of the area in which it operates where the plans of a particular business are being
implemented as you well know it is these
parameters that in each specific case determine the most convenient effective type of financing
debt or Equity of course the banking sector and the stock
market play a leading role in promoting such mechanisms Russian Banks despite the
fact that most of them are under sanctions operate stably and
sustainably they have a significant margin of safety and they are increasing lending
to the real sector I constantly communicate with representatives of large and
medium-sized companies and with representatives of the financial sector Everyone is always
unhappy with each other that's always the case I think it's everywhere but the
numbers show that decisions are being made life is going the economy is
developing and overall the result is good there were experts I want to return
to those who prophesied that because of the sanctions our banks would stop
developing and they would not Finance the economy however
instead the banking sector increased its efficiency and reached record lending
volumes in the entire history of Russia we have record lending
volumes both corporate and mortgage there are certain risks here
the government and the Central Bank are now also discussing this with each other looking for certain Solutions in order
not to overheat this Market we know the negative EXP
experience of individual countries where the mortgage lending Market was to put it mildly not backed by real money we
know what this led to we are trying to take into account all experiences including negative ones so that nothing
like this happens in our economy however regarding
lending if over the past year the volume of Ruble loans to the corporate sector increased by 9.5 trillion
rubles then since the beginning of this year it has added another more than 13 trillion rubles we can confidently
say that internal sources of lending for Russian companies have replaced external
ones this was one of the most fundamental issues for our economy I can't say that everything is completely
resolved of course not because Western lending is cheaper
and the volumes there are different but in general there is no problem here today
I can say the same about government borrowing for the first time in a long time the federal budget deficit was
fully financed from domestic resources at the same time Western portfolio
investors themselves or rather under pressure from their
governments again deprive themselves of the opportunity to make money on our highly profitable Market we can only
sympathize with them let them have more influence on sound decisions that should be made at the
government level in their countries a few words about public finances over the 11 months of this year
the federal budget deficit amounted to 878 billion rubles which is approximately half a percent of
GDP and if you look at the Consolidated budget then there is a surplus of 837
billion rubles if you collect Regional Finance and so on that is in general the Russian
Financial system is in an absolutely normal absolutely healthy State let me remind you that at the beginning of the
year some experts expected that Russia would face a budget deficit of three or even 5% of GDP by
the way this would not be any kind of catastrophe and it would not be a big
problem given the low level of our debt but nevertheless this did not happen in a word again
in their forecasts they expressed wishful thinking but in reality everything
turned out differently as you can see of course at the same time we see problems
and tasks that we still have to solve thus to maintain positive Dynamics it is
necessary that the economy and Russian companies have more opportunities to attract resources in our financial
market so that they increase the number of placements of their securities that are
in demand within the country in this regard I would like to say the following at meetings with leading
Russian business associations during economic forums the question of capital outflow often arises and opinions are
heard that large profitable businesses would like to save and invest in Russia here it is more reliable here the
profitability is higher but we lack investment instruments it seems to me that this is
the case such Investments need to be put into motion it is necessary to develop a
modern Financial infrastructure it is necessary to create effective channels for transforming corporate savings into
Investments I draw the attention of the government the central bank and our development institutions to this I ask
the government together with mham bank to ensure the Speedy launch of
investment projects within the framework of the equity Capital fund program the essence of this mechanism is
that bank send available funds to a fund and this fund guarantees a return
on investment nesam Bank acts as the guarantor
thus Banks can participate in business projects in the real sector as
co-founders the first such fund has been created it is a matter of widespread
practical use of such an instrument and real financing of specific initiatives we worked for a very long time on the
cre of this fund we had many discussions with the Russian Union of industrialists and entrepreneurs on this matter but it
was created so that it would finally start working
today the Russian stock market actively attracts funds from citizens more than 27 million people
already use brokerage Services which is about a quarter more than a year
ago the value of the assets they own is about 9 trillion r
citizen savings should serve as an important source of investment resources as is done in many economies around the
world this should work for the economy for development and it should bring additional income to
people for those who are ready to invest for a long time and earn money within the country we are already creating
attractive
conditions but investments in foreign securities showed what it was worth the unreliability turned out to be
so obvious and the actions of the western Partners turned out to be so uncivilized to put it mildly these
actions of theirs can be characterized that way they just stole money from people from individuals this is just a
disgrace but nevertheless we have to face such
things this is how they destroy their own economy those who do this from January 1
next year a new tool for long-term savings for Citizens will be launched we are talking about voluntary Savings in
non-state funds such funds of citizens in the amount of up to 2,800,000 Rubles
will be insured by the state that is their return will be guaranteed I
believe that the same Insurance mechanism should be extended to long-term individual investment
accounts here the maximum amount of insurance and insurance coverage can be 1,400,000 rubles per person that
is it is the same as for insuring Bank deposits I hope that this will increase the flow of
funds into projects with a long payback period for example in the construction of
infrastructure Logistics corridors Terminals and other large scale and long-term
projects already at the end of the first year of the citizens long-term Savings Program
the volume of such Investments should be at least 250 billion rubles this is not a very large figure
for the country but it is quite possible to start with and in
2026 this resource should grow to 1% of
GDP separate Solutions are needed for capital of fast growing high-tech businesses here as a rule the only
assets are the valuable idea itself new technology and a great desire
to implement them but as a rule there is not enough resource for development for entering the market we
have already provided measures that will stimulate demand for Innovation from the largest corporations
and companies with government participation they will more actively
allocate funds for direct and Venture Investments and for the purchase of domestic high-tech
products the government and the bank of Russia need of course to pay increased
attention to this segment including the need to simplify the issue of Securities of small
dynamically growing companies not only on stock exchanges but also on investment
platforms where private investors can become real co-owners of promising startups of course there are details
that need to be thought about but it is certainly necessary to move in this direction dear friends Financial
stability self-sufficiency of the banking system and the stock market are important
elements of the economic sovereignty of our country and we will definitely move
along this path through the joint efforts of the state society and strong nationally oriented
business we will work together and with our foreign Partners we see this as the key to
Russia's successful development its strong position in a changing world in the world world of the
future thank you for your attention thank
you