YEKATERINBURG, July 8. /TASS/. Russia’s defense contractors are forced to be on a tight budget due to the heavy debt burden, Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov said at the Innoprom international industrial exhibition on Monday.

"The industrial sector that manufactures products is starving as it services financial institutions that produce nothing and are only meant to ensure the process of manufacturing process management and product introduction. Meanwhile, they (financial institutions) have profit multi-fold higher than manufacturers," he emphasized.

"We have repeatedly asked President to clean the loan portfolio. Various mechanisms may be used," Deputy PM added.

Earlier he said that the loan portfolio of defense contractors currently exceeds 2 trillion rubles ($31.3 bln).

Borisov expressed hope that the next meeting of the defense commission in September 2019 would focus on the issue of loans for defense contractors.

The Innoprom international industrial exhibition runs in Russia’s Yekaterinburg on July 8-11. The exhibition has its focus on digital production. Turkey is a partner of Innoprom-2019 while Russia’s Industry and Trade Ministry and the government of the Sverdlovsk Region are the exhibition’s organizers. TASS is general information partner and operator of the press center.