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Russian businessmen concern is unpredictable economic policy — ombudsman

Other points of concern are the demand for goods and services, the exchange rate, the ruble’s volatility, taxes and interest rates, says Russia’s business ombudsman

TOMSK, June 7. /TASS/. Russia’s business ombudsman Boris Titov says local entrepreneurs are concerned more about unpredictability in the economic policy than issues related to demand for goods and services and currency exchange rates.

"The report that is annually prepared for the Russian president contains social researches. The problem of unpredictable economic policy tops the list of problems that businessmen are concerned about today. It’s not even demand, which is the second issue on the list, and not the exchange rate, the ruble’s volatility, which is the third, not taxes, which is the fourth, and interest rates, which are the fifth, but Russia’s global problem on the whole - the obscurity of the economic course," he said.

According to Titov, the report prepared for President contains 234 systematic problems, which need to be tackled for further development of business environment in the country.

"But the key thing is that the economic policy does not meet the case. Today a new economic policy is required because Russia’s new economy should be developed as the economy independent of commodities and dependent on us, entrepreneurs," he said.

One economic doctrine has been used in Russia for more than 15 years, Titov said. "This is the doctrine of tough financial policy, macroeconomic stabilization, reserves formation and inflation targeting. All this has been very profitable and correct, this being an efficient policy at the stage of resource-based economy when we exported crude oil, which was a permanent source of revenues for the country. Now that oil prices have plunged almost three-fold and there are no revenues, everything is getting different," he said, adding that "new sources of revenues should be looked for" and Russia has potential for boosting its economy without oil revenues.

The report on the current situation regarding Russian entrepreneurship may be presented at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in June this year, Titov said.