MOSCOW, September 30. /TASS/. Russia will have to triple the volume of loans in 2017, head of the Center for Strategic Research (CSR) and ex-Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said in an interview with the Rossiya 24 TV channel as part of the Sochi-2016 International Investment Forum.
"It will be necessary to increase borrowings anyway, even next year we will have to take three times more than this year, but when the reserve fund becomes empty, we will have to borrow even more," Kudrin said.
At the same time he noted that "this policy can be only temporary."
"That is why it will be necessary to cut deficit and cut borrowings. But in these conditions it is necessary to take funds to solve these current issues," Kudrin said. He did not say exactly what borrowings he was talking about.
"It will be necessary to increase borrowings anyway, even next year we will have to take three times more than this year, but when the reserve fund becomes empty, we will have to borrow even more," Kudrin said.
Kudrin has suggested that certain social budget expenditures on the so-called Presidential ‘May decrees’, including the one implying a raise in wages to public sector employees, should be postponed in order to bring the budget into balance.
"I would extend the period for implementation of those decrees and postpone them in order to carry out assumed obligations more efficiently amid a tough budget," he said.
No plans for returning to government
Alexey Kudrin has no plans for returning to the federal government.
"The issue is not on the agenda now, of course," he told TASS when asked if he might agree to take a position in a future Cabinet.