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The meeting’s agenda covered the main priorities of the national economic policy until 2030, including the implementation of the Executive Order on Russia’s National Development Goals.

Participants in the meeting included Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Anton Vaino, First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, Deputy Prime Minister and Chief of the Government Staff Dmitry Grigorenko, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Maxim Oreshkin, Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, and Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina.

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Opening remarks at the meeting on economic issues

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Colleagues, good morning.

The agenda for today’s meeting covers matters of systemic importance for the national economy, aimed at ensuring its steady and, importantly, lasting growth. It is designed to serve as a foundation for all our strategic plans to develop the country in general, as well as its regions, cities and rural areas, while also enabling Russian families to earn higher incomes and improve their quality of life.

As you know, this year’s Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly, as well as the Executive Order on the National Development Goals set forth the key priorities for Russia’s national development until 2030 and beyond, until 2036.

This includes goals related to demographics and social affairs, the environment and infrastructure, education and youth affairs, research and technology. Overall, the agenda covers a wide range of topics that are instrumental for ensuring our national sovereignty in terms of values, statehood and the economy, as well as ensuring steady and sustained growth for our country in this rapidly changing world.

The Government is about to complete its effort to draft new national projects and define interaction mechanisms at all levels of government. This also includes promoting partnerships involving the state, people, businesses and development institutions.

We will review these documents at the upcoming Strategic Planning Council meeting, and discuss their administrative, managerial and financial aspects. We will evaluate and assess the way each specific solution, initiative or amendment, and every allocation of funding contribute to achieving the national development goals.

This is the only way forward. In our national projects, we cannot afford anything that lacks a positive impact, empty or formal measures whose sole purpose is to tick some boxes without delivering any tangible results or improving people‘s quality of life.

Let me reiterate that the state of our economy guides our efforts to fulfil these plans. After all, our industrial, trade, logistics and financial capabilities largely determine the resources and budgetary means that state has at its disposal. This has a direct bearing on the funding we allocate for achieving the key, systemically important objectives to improve the wellbeing of our people.

In this connection, I suggest that we discuss the main economic policy priorities until 2030 with our colleagues from the Government and the Central Bank. This includes efforts to strengthen our economic fundamentals in order to ensure the successful completion of the special military operation. As I have already said many times, this is the main prerequisite for delivering on Russia’s long-term development goals.

But before we proceed to the meeting’s agenda, I would like to take a moment to discuss the current economic situation. While the participants here are already familiar with it, I believe it is important to reiterate some key points.

Just like in 2023, the Russian economy continues to experience robust growth. According to the available estimates for the first six months of the year, the gross domestic product increased by 4.6 percent, with manufacturing showing a 4.4 percent growth rate. Moreover, the processing sector has seen an improvement in its performance, with an 8 percent increase.

Consumer demand remains strong too, with an 8.8 percent increase in retail trade for the first half of the year. Importantly, this result is mainly supported by higher wages. In real terms and after adjusting for inflation, salaries increased by 10.1 percent in January−May 2024. At the same time, unemployment in Russia remains at a historical law of 2.4 percent as of June.

The federal budget has benefited from economic growth and higher salaries. In the first seven months of 2024, budget revenue reached almost 20 trillion rubles, up 36 percent year-on-year. This is quite a significant achievement. Another important element here are the so-called non-oil and gas revenues, which are unrelated to fuel exports. They accounted for almost two thirds of the budget proceeds.

These indicators demonstrate the overall confidence in the national manufacturing sector, agriculture and services, with companies and their staff operating in a stable manner and generating positive momentum. They envision a bright future and have ambitious development plans.

I have said numerous times that we must make sure to reinforce these positive trends in the real economy and encourage businesses to invest in upgrading their assets and opening new manufacturing facilities, creating jobs and training more staff.

Of course, it is also necessary to strengthen the national infrastructure framework and develop digital platforms and e-services in order to maintain business activity, enable new Russian companies to enter domestic and external markets, and expand trade and cooperation ties between plants and regions, as well as with foreign countries.

In this context, I again urge the Government and the Central Bank to increase the efficiency of coordinated moves directed at reducing inflation.

It is obvious that fighting inflation in a systemic way requires boosting the supply of goods and services – this is clear – so that they correspond to internal demand, both from consumers and from industries and companies that invest in development projects and capacity expansion, construction, and equipment purchases.

As for the monetary and credit policy, the Bank of Russia modifies the key rate and regulates the bank lending market to contain inflation. In this field, we observe outperformance despite the key rate hikes. For example, business lending increased in annual terms by over 20 percent and debt on non-mortgage-backed consumer loans increased by 3.5 trillion rubles as of the end of June.

According to expert estimates, this situation largely contributes to the rise in consumer demand and inflation growth. It is important to note that the rapid development of the financial sector should not lead to negative consequences. That is a subtle thing.

Let us now turn to the agenda and discuss these matters. Mr Reshetnikov, the floor is yours.

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