What Putin said about the economy and assistance to Donbass. The main thing

On December 15, Russian President Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting of the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects. He summed up the economic results of 2022 and set tasks for the government for 2023. The decrease in the country’s GDP by the end of the year will be about 2.5%, the president said. In January-November, the federal budget was executed with a surplus of 560 billion rubles. In 2023, the Russian budget will be executed with a small deficit – about 2% of GDP, Putin predicts. He stressed that this will be one of the best indicators in the G20, and since the beginning of 2022, the ruble has become one of the strongest currencies in the world.

Among the key tasks in the economy for 2023, the head of state called bringing interaction with key partners to a new level. “To do this, we will eliminate restrictions in logistics and finance. Our foreign trade is shifting to dynamic regions and markets, to dynamically developing countries,” he said. Deliveries of Russian energy resources will be redirected to the markets of friendly countries – in Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East.

According to the President, in the first nine months of 2022, oil exports to partner countries increased by almost 25%. One of the key growing consumers of Russian gas is Turkey, whose gas infrastructure has “serious potential.” It is possible to create an electronic platform for trading Russian energy resources for the West in this country in the next three months, Putin said.

Another priority task is to achieve technological sovereignty. The President said that in the “near future” joint [с дружественными странами] projects in energy, agriculture. According to him, the problems that have arisen with components, the lack of technological solutions, disrupted familiar logistics “open up new opportunities, are an incentive to build an economy that has full, and not partial, technological production, personnel, and scientific sovereignty.” “It is important not just to replace some commodity positions, it is necessary to achieve leadership in key vital areas, such as artificial intelligence, computing and data transmission, and new industrial technologies,” Putin said.

He noted the role of Russia in the global agricultural market, the country has become one of the largest suppliers of grain, vegetable oils and fertilizers to the global market. The priority for the state remains the provision of internal needs and conscientious fulfillment of obligations under external contracts. Putin also noted that Russia continues to help the poorest countries with food.

The task of 2023 is to ensure the outstripping growth of the manufacturing industry, to increase capacities “in a short time” and create new production lines.

The fiscal and administrative burden for residents of industrial clusters should be reduced, the president said. They also need to ensure low insurance premiums and income tax breaks, and demand for their innovative products, which are just entering the market, will be supported by long-term orders and subsidies from the state.

The Russian financial system should provide for the needs that were previously covered by Western sources of funding, Putin is sure. “Russia must ensure the inflow of long-term investments and equity capital, investment in infrastructure and high-tech business. <...> In all these areas, it is necessary to achieve tangible, noticeable progress next year,” the head of state set the task.

He outlined the need to develop infrastructure within the country: it is necessary to put in order regional highways, build housing and improve the living conditions of citizens.

According to Putin, within 10 years it is planned to attract at least 4.5 trillion rubles to the housing and communal services sector, including 30 billion in 2023 and 100 billion in 2024 from the state for the program. This will not be enough to radically to change the situation in the housing and communal services system, therefore, Putin called on the government, together with the regions, to direct the funds of infrastructure and budget loans as a priority to solve problems in the housing and communal services sector.

The President devoted a significant part of his speech to measures of social support. One of the key tasks is to reduce poverty and inequality, increase the real incomes of citizens, reduce the gap in the potential of the regions, protect motherhood and childhood, and support families. Putin said that the income of people with minimum wages in Russia in 2022 increased by 27.8%, in general, in the third quarter, the poverty rate fell to 10.5%.

“Of course, this is a small movement, but a movement in the right direction,” he said. It is important to continue to increase the minimum wage at a rate above inflation and average wage growth, Putin said. “Among those who work, there should not be poor people who can barely make ends meet. It is work that should provide a person with a decent income,” he said. According to him, the key to higher incomes is high economic growth and new well-paid jobs.

From January 1, 2023, the system of support for motherhood and childhood will be transformed. According to Putin, single monthly allowances will be paid to needy families with children from birth to 17 years old. The allowance will be assigned on one application from parents or a pregnant woman, immediately for all children in the family. At the same time, the amount of benefits for pregnant women will be increased. The payment will be from half to one living wage.

Putin said that Russia’s subsidized mortgage will be “curtailed”, but it is necessary to do it smoothly. To begin with, it was decided to extend it until July 1, 2024, with an increase in the rate to 8%. Now this figure is 7%. The family mortgage will become the main instrument – ​​in 2023 it will be extended at 6% to families with two children born starting from 2018.

In the new regions of Russia – the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions – a maternity capital program will also appear, the president announced. For new construction, the preferential rate will be 2%. In general, the new subjects should reach the all-Russian standard of living by 2030, Putin noted. He instructed the government to prepare a program for the socio-economic development of these regions by the end of the first quarter of 2023.