Achieving sustainable growth of the Russian economy in the near future will be possible only by increasing the income of citizens.

This was announced on Friday, January 15, by the head of the Ministry of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov at the Gaidar Forum.

“Without the growth of incomes of the population, without the growth of household consumption, further growth of the economy and reaching the growth of 3%, which is our goal, is impossible,” the minister stressed.

Against this background, in 2020, the priority of the government of the country was precisely the preservation of the incomes of Russians, Reshetnikov added.

According to him, financial assistance to the population was provided both in the form of direct social payments and in the form of business support.

In the context of the coronavirus pandemic, the authorities provided payments to temporarily unemployed citizens who lost their jobs after March 1, 2020, as well as to families with children.

In addition, the government provided companies and entrepreneurs with credit holidays, grants and soft loans to pay employees' salaries.

“Ultimately, all of our business support goals were about supporting jobs.

Until now, these programs continue to work.

Under the payroll 2.0 program (soft loans with write-offs), we now have 5.4 million jobs that are kept by entrepreneurs, ”the minister said.

As Vladimir Putin previously stated, the authorities allocated 838 billion rubles to direct assistance to the population.

In turn, small and medium-sized businesses received about 1 trillion rubles of state support through various channels.

In addition, to combat the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, the Russian government has approved a nationwide economic recovery plan.

The project contains about 500 events, and the cost of its implementation in two years will be about 5 trillion rubles.

As part of the initiative, by the end of 2021, the authorities plan to move to sustainable 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%.

This was previously stated by Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov.

According to him, from 2022 to 2024, 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.

The launch of a new investment cycle will help to increase the income of citizens.

This point of view in a conversation with RT was expressed by the head of the laboratory for the analysis of institutions and financial markets at the Institute for Applied Economic Research, RANEPA, Alexander Abramov.

“The investment activity of companies implies the expansion of production, the creation of new jobs and infrastructure, as well as an increase in workers' salaries.

Investment protection and promotion agreements should be an important incentive for this.

Within their framework, special conditions are created for companies, and the state guarantees the invariability of maintaining the tax regime and other conditions for large investment projects, "Abramov explained.

As expected, an increase in household income will lead to an increase in consumer demand in Russia.

As a result, the overall growth of economic activity in the country should accelerate.

Artyom Lyutik, Managing Director of Univer Capital, told RT about this.

“If people's incomes are steadily growing, they are more willing to spend money, which is why the turnover of trade, services, and industry increases.

The more the turnover and profit of the business, the more the state receives taxes and other payments.

The more opportunities for the state to develop the social sphere, increase pensions, improve the quality of medical care, education and culture, ”the expert explained.

Price excitement

On the sidelines of the Gaidar Forum, the meeting participants also discussed the situation with the rise in consumer prices in Russia.

According to the head of the Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina, the regulator sees signs of accelerating inflation in the country.

“If after the financial crisis, when a soft monetary policy was pursued, not as temporary, not as countercyclical, we saw that it does not go into inflation, but goes into the value of financial assets, loans almost did not grow, grew weakly, the final demand also grew weak, the money supply did not grow very much in connection with this all.

But during a pandemic, we see signs that inflation is accelerating, ”Nabiullina said.

  • Elvira Nabiullina, Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia

  • RIA News

  • © Press Service of the Bank of Russia

According to Rosstat, in 2020 inflation in Russia exceeded the target of 4% and reached 4.9%.

According to the forecast of the Central Bank, in the first quarter of 2021, the indicator may grow further and will be close to the 5% level.

However, by the end of the year, the value may return to the range of 3.5-4%, according to the Central Bank.

“The incipient acceleration of inflation was caused by a decrease in supply in the market due to the lockdown, as well as by the weakening of the ruble due to a decrease in oil prices and a slowdown in economic growth amid the pandemic.

However, most likely, we will soon overcome these factors, "said Nikita Maslennikov, head of the Finance and Economics department at the Institute of Contemporary Development, to RT.

According to Artyom Lyutik, inflation in Russia was also influenced by the general rise in world food prices.

However, the expert also does not exclude that the situation will stabilize in the near future.

“In 2021, the ruble is expected to be much more stable, and world prices will not rise significantly.

In addition, the state is undertaking a number of efforts to prevent an increase in the cost of food on the domestic market.

This means that the recently observed rise in prices will slow down, ”the analyst concluded.