Russia is currently unable to struggle against crisis

The anti-crisis measures of the Russian government are inefficient. Russia should have stimulated the home demand instead of giving the direct support to banks and the real sector of economy.

Photo: Russia is currently unable to struggle against crisis

Experts of FBK Auditing Group conducted a research to estimate the effectiveness of anti-crisis measures in Russia and in the world. The index of the anti-crisis effectiveness shows the changes of 14 economic and social constituents, of which it is made. The index takes account of the GDP, the volume of international reserves, the index of the industrial production, the foreign trade turnover, the inflation rate, the unemployment and several other aspects.

FBK calculated the index for eight countries: Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, the USA, Great Britain, France, Germany and Canada.

Russia was the leader among the above-mentioned eight countries in July 2008, when the crisis had not hit the country yet. The index of Russia’s anti-crisis activity made up +1,111. The USA had the worst result: -0,745.

Russia ’s index dropped to -0.6 in January 2009. It was Ukraine that had a smaller rating: -1.083.

Only Britain and Germany increase the efficiency of the anti-crisis struggle among all other countries, which FBK analyzed. France and Canada have not succeeded at this point.

The Russian government has a special program of anti-crisis measures for 2009.

FBK experts say that the rating of the anti-crisis efficiency will not grow after the program is launched. The program mainly concentrates on the support of the banking sector and provides the insufficient support for the home demand, which many experts see as one of the major means of the anti-crisis struggle.

The program also gives too much priority to the real sector of economy. The state deprives business of any motives for development and declines the major advantage of the market economy – the business self-organization and initiative.

The beginning of the crisis showed that making investments in the banking system was pointless. The practice led to the outflow of capital, the reduction of gold and currency reserves and the devaluation of the national currency.

FBK’s Igor Nikolayev is certain that there will be no second wave of the crisis. “Russian banks are not credit organizations, they are currency exchange offices, if we call things by their proper names,” the official said.