Translated material
The real economy is interesting
Unfortunately, an interesting situation has somehow developed in the Altai Territory - there is no place to discuss the real economy of the region. Economic Vice-Governor Mikhail Shchetinin somehow skillfully created a PR project “Economy” that one can only discuss the great achievements of the governor. What is real?
I remember how at one round table where there were no officials, an economist who had not yet fallen into disgrace with the regional authorities answered my question: “How should you answer? How should I answer or the truth?” I immediately felt ashamed, because I realized that it was inconvenient for him to lie, but at the same time, he could be excommunicated from access to high offices for telling the truth.
Although once a year in the Altai Territory you can talk about the real economy, this is at the “Siberian Davos” in Belokurikha, but again it is held by Vladimir Ryzhkov, and therefore the governor does not allow officials there and you cannot discuss with them.
But for the soul, every month I study the monthly analytical reports of the Institute of Economic Policy named after E.T. Gaidar. This is the only institute that, since the 90s, has introduced a systematic analysis of the Russian economy. Moreover, a minimum of politics, but a maximum of facts, and brought into the SYSTEM.
I advise everyone to read www.iep.ru.
The analysis for December has already been completed. There are several interesting points.
1. I recently noted that in the federal budget for 2013 there are no tourism clusters of either the Altai Territory or the Altai Republic, but there is a tourism cluster of the North Caucasus. So, the analysis gives a special overview that the development of the tourism cluster has slowed down due to the complexity of resolving land issues. Alexander Bogdanovich, hurry up, maybe with the help of our lobbyists, if there are any, we can achieve at least a little redistribution of the federal budget cash flow to the Turquoise Katun tourist zone?
2. The dynamics of world stock indices over the year are interesting: Russian indices grew by only 0.78 and 3.65%. Türkiye made a breakthrough - +38.5%!!!, Germany +23.92%, India +19.75%. We can only console ourselves that the indices of China and Chile have fallen.
3. Again, rapid growth of budget expenditures in relation to GDP in the sectors “National Security and Law Enforcement” and “Defense” was noted. But these rates are noticeably lower in the lines of “Healthcare”, “Education” and “Culture”. There is an increase in spending on “Social Policy” at the expense of the federal budget, but at the same time, spending at the expense of regional budgets is decreasing. So the trend towards the formation of a “Police State” continues.
4. The sharp increase in domestic prices for gasoline and diesel fuel in the period from June to September 2012 (plus 15-20%!!!) was striking.
5. Since 2013, consumption standards have been increased when calculating the consumer basket. But this section requires separate analysis.
6. Putin probably heard Kudrin’s call to curb spending on defense and law enforcement, and the deadline for introducing the law on indexation of pay in the army and the Ministry of Internal Affairs was postponed by one year.