Stepan Zemtsov: “Small business may face higher risks in the Russian Federation”

In his interview to IА REGNUM,Stepan Zemtsov, Senior Research Associate of the Innovation-Driven Economy Department, Gaidar Institute said that at present it was premature to speak about the stabilization of the SME situation in Russia. Such was his comment on the RF Ministry of Economic Development’s conclusions regarding the stabilization of the situation in the SME sector.

“The government measures helped mitigate implications induced by the pandemic. So, the federal government aid to the small business increased 20.7 times over in 2020 relative to 2018. The scope of support grew from 2%-3% of all SME to 25% during the peak of the coronacrisis. Those measures prevented a potentially dramatic drop in employment in 2020, but it is premature to speak about the stabilization of the situation in the light of the spread of a new coronavirus variant,” Stepan Zemtsov noted.

At the same time, Stepan Zemtsov specified that the situation improved by the New Year. “Households’ spendings have increased, but by contrast with the pre-pandemic period annual results are not quite optimistic yet,” Stepan Zemtsov said.

Monday, 13.12.2021