Reshetnikov announced “significantly decreased” export prices

The Russian economy is under pressure from significantly lower export prices, Economic Development Minister Maxim Reshetnikov said, commenting on the depreciation of the ruble. The Ministry of Economy, he said, will analyze the sustainability of trends in the country’s trade balance.

The minister said that this month the agency will send an updated three-year macro forecast to the government, in preparation it will analyze the reasons for the decline in exports and growth in imports, as well as how much the measures taken in this direction are sufficient.

“Our problem now is not in imports, of course, our problem is in exports, we are under pressure from significantly lower export prices. At the same time, we are analyzing for each product group – what is happening, how much is the conjuncture, how long is the cycle, – leads his words “Interfax”.

Reshetnikov stressed that this is not about simple fluctuations, but about trends in the global economy, which will also be assessed by the Ministry of Economy.

Speaking about the reasons for the growth in imports, the minister singled out the cost reduction due to the reconfiguration of logistics, as well as the growth in demand due to the expansion of lending and wage increases.

Earlier, the Ministry of Finance announced that in August the budget for the first time since the beginning of the year will receive oil and gas windfall. This month, additional revenues will amount to 73.2 billion rubles. The base level of oil and gas revenues for August was set at RUB 672 billion. In July, the budget faced falling revenues from the sale of energy resources. The Ministry of Finance estimated the deviation from the baseline at 40 billion rubles. Foreign currency purchases may amount to 40.5 billion rubles. or 1.8 billion per day from August 7 to September 6.

Simultaneously with the announcement of expectations of additional revenues in August, the Ministry of Finance announced plans to reduce the use of the NWF to finance budget expenditures. According to Vedomosti’s sources, the authorities decided to direct the excess profits to cover the deficit and, thus, slow down spending from the reserves.