The billionaire called on the authorities to understand the current economic policy

The president of Rusal, billionaire Oleg Deripaska , called the Russian financial system “usurious” for borrowers, TASS reported on Tuesday.

“The debt market is inefficient, one might say enslaving. The financial system is usurious. I apologize, it came out,” Deripaska said at the “Russia Calling” forum.

According to him, there is no need to talk about any turning point in the Russian economy until bank rates drop to the level of 5% per annum. “I would focus on this - how to really provide resources for companies, not only large, but also small and medium-sized businesses that are consumers of the materials and raw materials that we produce, produced by Igor Ivanovich (Sechin, head of Rosneft). The secret is very simple - you need to give them affordable credit resources at an interest rate of around 5% through banks,” says Deripaska.

The current economic downturn is pushing the issue of investment into the background, he added. “I'm not sure we need investment now. It seems to me that we need to understand economic policy in general. I feel that in the coming year we are unlikely to achieve anything definite. This is also good, someone was driven through the desert for 30 years,” Deripaska said.

He recalled that in 2013 Russia’s GDP was $2.3 trillion, in 2015 it is projected to be $1.2 trillion,Interfax reports. “We are moving towards the level of 1998, when there was $700 billion, judging by the promises of the exchange rate and the rate of decline that are being offered. So I would think broadly about what kind of economic policy we need. But I wouldn’t count on investment,” the billionaire noted.

In such a situation, it is necessary to deal with demand within the country, Deripaska believes.

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Deripaska complained about the “usurious” financial system