News

22/10/2008

The Russian government considers to be priorities for the care of their three sectors of Russian economy - banking, construction and retail, which will be used «manual transmission», said the first vice-premier Igor Shuvalov.
«We decided that we should care to administrative regulations banking and construction sectors, as well as retail, as well as in a low level of confidence, banks stopped issuing loans, and these industries are in need of working capital. To ensure that they have capital, you must create a mechanism of «manual» in the banking sector so that banks were confident that loans will be returned », - he said in an interview to Financial Times.
Eve Assistant to the President for Economic Questions Arkady Dvorkovich said that the government can buy from the builders uncompleted flats, if there are no other buyers that banks «feel confident» credit developers. Retail networks, including the pharmacy, he promised to support in the form of loans and tax breaks.
However, Shuvalov confirmed the position of talking before the authorities, according to which tasks to save all the banks and not consolidation as a result of absorption of the weaker players will only be useful for the market.
«There must be a balance. We do not just want to bury a lot of banks, but at the same time, we want to consolidate the banking sector. We do not want the banking system is simply dead. We want to give chance to those bankers and shareholders who are willing to deal with the crisis. If they have extra capital that they can use, and good management, they have every opportunity to use it. Otherwise, these banks will be acquired and consolidated », - said Shuvalov.
Shuvalov also said that VEB, which would give businesses $ 50 billion for the repayment of external loans, will receive shares as security for the debtors. In the event of default on loans have very VEBu shares remain at the bank.
«We have no goal to collect as many shares. Our goal - that they (companies) meet its debts. In an extreme case, this is not what we need, not what we want, we will get this support. If this happens, and we will get this support, we will not need to immediately sell it, as do commercial banks - can we wait for the situation and the situation did not improve on the market », - said Shuvalov.
Association of big business Russia - the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) - had earlier expressed fears that the massive government purchase of shares from the formal to save the markets could lead to the nationalization. Shuvalov denies the existence of such plans to the authorities.
«We are not ready to spend internal credit resources to nationalize the fact that when it was privatized. We have no such purpose. Our goal - to provide credit, because companies that get these loans, will survive and will grow », - he said.
« We need another two to three weeks », - said Shuvalov, bearing in mind the time when all the government measures to support the economy will be able to earn.
«interbank rate reached 22 percent. The situation is gradually settled, it will not happen immediately, because it has already affected the psychology of people. The interbank (market) started to work normally, the stakes are still high, but began to decline. The banks have resumed lending to sectors of the economy. But we still need two or three weeks that the situation began corrected », - he said.
Turning to the macroeconomic projections, which Russian authorities have still not updated, Shuvalov did not rule out zero-growth economy, if measures to combat the effects of the crisis will fail.
«If we act bad, economic growth could be zero. If we work efficiently, the rate of growth will be positive », - he said.

Source: Reuters
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