ALEXEY VEDEV: “THERE ARE MANY INCONSISTENCIES IN THE SUBMITTED MACROFORECAST”

Alexey Vedev, Head of Financial Studies Department of the Gaidar Institute, told “Izvestia” about the inconsistencies in the submitted forecast for socio-economic development of Russia until 2023, that the Ministry of Finance was not again happy with.
Last week, the Ministry of Economic Development has submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers the third version of the forecast for socio-economic development for 2020 and 2021-2023. This time, the government has preliminary approved the Ministry’s forecast, however, without discussion, although, this procedure has to be implemented according to the regulation. The decision was taken not to exclude consideration of this document in the agenda of the meeting, since despite the amendments, the Ministry of Finance still had principal issues regarding the assessment provided by the Ministry of Economic Development. The forecasts for the GDP nominal amount for 2021 caused major disagreements. The Ministry of Economic Development assessed this index as of RUB 113.7 trillion in its latest version.
According to Alexey Vedev, “the latest forecast has also other defects: for instance, it is questionable, why oil prices rise in horizon of 2021–2023, while the Ruble exchange rate is on the contrary weakening”.
The economist of the Gaidar Institute highlighted: “As a rule, the Ministry of Finance considered the conservative version of the forecast in order to prepare budget.  The current situation is absolutely not standard”.