“The government’s ruling on early settlement of the Paris Club debt is to be signed today. I need it today. It is probably being sealed even now,” Deputy Finance Minister Sergey Storchak announced August 8, 2006.
Photo: Mikhail Razuvaev
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Finance Minister Saves for Economic Development Minister
More likely than not, the government’s ruling on early settlement of Paris Club debt was sealed yesterday. The money saved on the interest payment will probably go to Investment Fund in 2007, according to agreement reached by Finance Ministry and Economic Development Ministry.
“The government’s ruling on early settlement of the Paris Club debt is to be signed today. I need it today. It is probably being sealed even now,” Deputy Finance Minister Sergey Storchak announced Tuesday, August 8, 2006.
Storchak needs the document to launch bilateral negotiations with creditors and reach a final accord on settlement of the better part of the foreign debt that Russia inherited from the former Soviet Union.
Russia intends to pay to the Paris Club the remainder of $21.3 billion by August 21, saving $7.7 billion on aggregate as a result. The saving will vary from year to year, standing at $1.2 billion in 2007, $1.1 billion in 2008 and $1 billion in 2009, but lowering to from $10 million to $20 million a year by 2020.
Economic Development Ministry eyes exactly this saved money to transfer directly to Investment Fund. “In principal, we have agreed about it with Finance Ministry, but the final decision hasn’t been made yet,” Deputy Economic Development Minister Kirill Androsov said yesterday.
So, if the Development Ministry is finally backed up in this undertaking, the Investment Fund will step up to between 180 billion rubles and 190 billion rubles in 2007, including 60 billion rubles that weren’t spent in 2007, 90 billion rubles set forth in the budget draft and 35 billion rubles to 37 billion rubles saved thanks to the early settlement of the Paris Club debt.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 09, 2006
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