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Russia’s Finance Minister urges creating center of reforms

According to Anton Siluanov, the center would involve lawmakers and also independent experts should define the indicators of effectiveness of specific budget spending
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov Sergey Fadeichev/TASS
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov
© Sergey Fadeichev/TASS

MOSCOW, June 23. /TASS/. Russia’s Finance Minister Anton Siluanov urged creating center of reforms to assess budget spending effectiveness.

He made this statement speaking in the State Duma, lower house of the Russian parliament.

According to him the center of reforms which would involve lawmakers and also independent experts should define the indicators of effectiveness of specific budget spending.

Siluanov said that the so-called "program approach of forming the budget makes it possible to prepare a document which is aimed at a certain result.

According to him it is necessary to revise the state programs defining effective and realistic expenditures for each of them.

"Unfortunately, it is not a goal-oriented approach that prevails now but a 'just turned out that way' approach when we create a budget on the base of the decisions that were taken earlier not on the base of the goals and objectives that should be achieved. Therefore, we need to implement some kind of 'reset' of the system of state programs turning them into a real tool to improve the efficiency of budget spending," the minister said.

According to the report published by the World Bank in April, continued impact of sanctions and lower oil prices will push Russian economy into protracted recession.

"Medium-term growth prospects for Russia are dim. The World Bank growth outlook projects that the continued impact of sanctions and lower oil prices will push the Russian economy into a protracted recession," the document said.

The World Bank baseline scenario for Russia projects oil prices at a level of $53 per barrel, and the economic contraction of 3.8% in 2015 leading to real GDP lowering to the 2012 level.