MOSCOW, February 7. /TASS/. Visa and Mastercard payment systems suspending activities in Russia in March 2022 affected mainly external settlements - the departure of these payment systems was not noticeable within the country, Deputy Minister Polina Kryuchkova said in an interview with TASS.
According to Kryuchkova, the year's results appear to be more optimistic than most experts predicted in April-May. Thanks to fast government action and businesses' adaptive capacity, the economic downturn was greatly reduced.
"We're also talking about the Bank of Russia's actions, which were able to halt the panic in the financial and foreign exchange markets, avert a cash crisis, and ensure a smooth transition of payment systems. In general, no one noticed the departure of payment systems within the country, only foreign transactions were affected. All of this, of course, helped mitigate panic," she said.
Kryuchkova added that, despite growing inflation in April-May and a local shortage of a number of commodities, the problem was promptly remedied by setting up a "green" corridor for imports, expediting all procedures as much as possible, and assisting companies in reconfiguring production.
"The second, and arguably more important, component is the company's ability to adapt. We can see that in this situation, businesses - small, large, and medium sized - have been busy. They restructured production networks, supply chains, export and import markets, and focused on domestic production," she added.
"It was mostly business’ flexibility that allowed the economy to adapt," Kryuchkova stressed.