The negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the Russian economy turned out to be less significant than in a number of other countries.

This was announced on Tuesday, December 8, by the presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov.

According to him, Russia has managed to minimize the economic consequences of COVID-19, but the country will not be able to completely free itself from the adverse effects of the global crisis.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin expects that in 2021 it will be possible to avoid the same drop in GDP as in 2020.

"The current level of debt and reserves are just one of the factors that ensure macroeconomic stability," Peskov stressed.

According to the American Institute of International Finance (IIF), in the third quarter of 2020, the level of public debt rose to 18% of GDP.

In 2019, the same indicator was 15.1%.

However, the indicator is still one of the lowest in the world.

For example, in the US, the corresponding value exceeds 127% of GDP, in the eurozone - 115%, in Japan - 257%, in the UK - 130%, and in China - 63%.

Moreover, since the beginning of 2020, Russia's gold and foreign exchange reserves have grown by 5% and currently exceed $ 583 billion. At the same time, back in early August, against the backdrop of a sharp rise in world gold prices, the volume of Russian reserves for the first time over the entire observation period rose above $ 600 billion. this is evidenced by the data of the Central Bank.

“In general, today we have no risks associated with servicing large debt, which many developed countries face.

At the same time, no matter what cataclysms may occur, due to the growth of reserves, our economy is provided with funds for two or three years, and it is impossible to shake it.

However, in the context of the global shock, it is very difficult to ensure sustainable economic growth, ”said Georgy Ostapkovich, director of the Center for Market Research at the Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge, NRU HSE, in a conversation with RT.

We will remind, earlier, to support the economy against the backdrop of the pandemic, the authorities approved several programs of financial assistance to business and the population.

In particular, we are talking about providing credit holidays, direct payments to families with children, soft loans and tax breaks for companies and entrepreneurs.

“In total, about 5% of GDP was spent on anti-crisis measures this year.

The strict budgetary policy of recent years has made it possible to form two funds.

First, a stabilization fund was created, and then a national welfare fund, which allowed us to spend so much, "said Nikita Maslennikov, head of the Finance and Economics department at the Institute of Contemporary Development, to RT.

According to him, during the pandemic, the economy was also supported by the policy of the Central Bank.

Since the beginning of the year, the Central Bank has lowered its key rate from 6.25 to 4.25% per annum - the lowest level for the entire post-Soviet period.

Such actions of the regulator also led to a noticeable decrease in rates on consumer loans, which provided additional assistance to the Russians.

  • © Maxim Blinov / RIA Novosti

As noted by Maslennikov, at the moment in Russia there has been a revival of business and consumer activity.

Against this background, at the beginning of 2022, the economy may return to pre-crisis levels, the expert said.

According to the forecast of the Ministry of Economic Development, in 2020 the volume of Russia's GDP will decrease by 3.9%, but already in 2021 it will grow by 3.3%, and in 2022 - by 3.4%.

A similar assessment is held by the Central Bank.

By the end of 2020, the Central Bank expects the economy to decline by 4-5%, followed by growth by 3-4% in 2021 and 2.5-3.5% in 2022.

“The fact that the economy will start to grow next year is obvious.

Nevertheless, the most important thing now is to achieve growth in income and employment.

Then people themselves will restore the economy with their productivity and their work.

This will allow avoiding an excessive concentration of incomes, deepening inequality and poverty, ”stressed Georgy Ostapkovich.

Note that at the end of September, the Russian government approved a national plan for economic recovery.

As the Prime Minister of the country Mikhail Mishustin noted earlier, the project contains about 500 events, and the cost of its implementation in two years will be about 5 trillion rubles.

According to First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov, the economic recovery process will take place in two stages.

The first stage will run from the 4th quarter of 2020 until the end of 2021.

During this time, the authorities plan to move to a steady growth in real incomes of the population and the economy as a whole, to restore the sectors most affected by the pandemic, and also to reach the unemployment rate below 5%.

The second stage covers the period 2022-2024.

At this time, the key task of the authorities will be the implementation of five national development goals and the achievement of the corresponding 25 targets.

“The main characteristics of this stage are GDP growth above 3% per year, real disposable income of the population - about 2.5%, investments in fixed assets - over 5% annually, non-oil and gas exports - by 3-4%,” Belousov explained.