Medvedev to chair govt meeting on economic issues.

MOSCOW, September 9 (Itar-Tass) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday will hold a meeting on economic matters in order to work out the strategy of overcoming the current crisis by the country.

"The president will hold a meeting at which the crisis overcoming
strategy will be clarified," Medvedev's press secretary Natalya Timakova
said on Tuesday. "It does not mean that we believe that the crisis is
over, but in any case it is necessary to understand in which phase we are
now and what we need to do for overcoming the crisis," she added.
On Monday, RF Economic Development and Trade Minister Elvira
Nabiullina stated that this summer the Russian economy passed the lowest
point of the crisis. "In the second half of this year the economy growth
should account, by our forecasts, for 3.9-4.5 percent," she said. "The
economy is demonstrating certain positive signals - regarding the GDP, the
development of the industry and investments," the minister noted.
According to Nabiullina, in July the industry growth (compared with the
previous month) accounted for 3.6 percent. The minister said that
export-oriented sectors, spheres where import substitution is engaged, oil
products, metallurgy, the chemical and food industry are displaying good
indicators.
"At present it is important to consolidate these trends," Nabiullina
is certain. In her view, thus result has been achieved not only because of
the change in the world economy dynamics, but also thanks to the
anti-crisis policy, budget demand and natural monopolies' demand.
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.Russia govt plans no external borrowing before end of 2009-Kudrin.

MOSCOW, September 9 (Itar-Tass) - The Russian government does not plan
any external borrowing before the end of 2009, Vice Prime Minister and
Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin told journalists at a briefing on the
results of a meeting with the prime minister on budget projections.
According to Kudrin, the new version of the budget for this year "does not
envisage external borrowing."
"In principle, the Budget Code's version that is currently in effect
allows manoeuvring between external and internal borrowings, but we do not
plan them so far," said the finance minister.
Last week, Kudrin said that this year's budget income target would be
met. He noted after a meeting of the Cabinet's presidium, "We shall be
able to achieve the expected level of budget execution we approved of last
February." "Whereas originally we expected an income of 6.317 trillion,
now we forecast 6.725 trillion roubles, according to the latest Economic
Development Ministry estimates." The finance minister said that the
structure of incomes will change - oil and gas revenues will grow, and
others, reduce.
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.RF budget deficit in 2010 may reach 6,8% GDP, in 2011-4%- Kudrin.

MOSCOW, September 9 (Itar-Tass) - Russian federal budget deficit in
2010 may reach about 6.8 percent of the GDP, in 2011 - 4 percent GDP and
in 2012 - 3 percent, Vice Prime Minister and Finance Minister Alexei
Kudrin told journalists on Tuesday at a briefing on the results of a
meeting with the RF prime minister on budget projections.
"The deficit may reach about 6.8 percent GDP in 2010 instead of the
earlier planned 7.5 percent," he said.
"The deficit in 2011 will reach 4 percent - a decline from 4.3 percent
GDP, and in 2012 it will account for 3 percent," the minister noted.
"The parameters for 2011-2012 were also reconsidered today and they
will be discussed at a meeting of the budget commission and there they
will be specified," Kudrin said.
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.Tax remissions are needed for RF Far East gas producers-Yazev.

KHABAROVSK, September 9 (Itar-Tass) - Natural gas recovery in the
Russian Far East should be exempt from the mineral extraction tax (MET),
believes deputy speaker of the State Duma lower house of parliament,
President of the Russian Gas Society Valery Yazev. According to him, such
complex fields as, for instance, the Kovykta or Chayanda fields with the
need of utilisation of methane, propane, butane and helium are very
difficult to develop. Tax remissions are needed here, Yazev stressed at a
briefing in Khabarovsk.
"I believe that the fields should be freed of the MET for a reasonable
time period," he noted.
The issue of the gas pumping tariffs that are set in a centralised way
by the state is also acute. The construction of gas pipelines is extremely
costly in the Far East, the depreciation component is very high. It is
necessary to find a reasonable solution.
"Low gas prices will not pay for projects and will make them
unattractive, and high prices make projects hardly applicable for local
enterprises, because the region's industry is not everywhere modernised
and consumes large amounts of energy resources," he explained.
"It is necessary to find the balance of interests of the natural gas
producers and consumers," said Yazev noting that "there is a large field
of activity here for the Russian Gas Society and deputies of the State
Duma." "These issues can be settled only at the state level," he stressed.
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.RF extra budget revenue in 2009 to reach RUR 69 bln-Kudrin.

MOSCOW, September 9 (Itar-Tass) - Additional revenue of the RF federal
budget in 2009 will reach 69 billion roubles, and the budget savings will
account for more than 140 billion roubles, Vice Prime Minister and Finance
Minister Alexei Kudrin told journalists on Tuesday at a briefing on the
results of a meeting with the RF prime minister on budget projections.
"We expect 69 billion roubles more additional revenue that planned
considering that we take new macroeconomics," the minister said stressing
that these funds will not be used this year. Besides, by means of the
redistribution of expenditure the government will manage to save more than
140 billion roubles. "In addition, we have carried out the work to specify
the budget fulfilment and made a decision that 141 billion roubles will be
redistributed from one budget items to another, which will allow us to
maximally fulfil the budget and a number of tasks that we wanted to fulfil
next year," Kudrin added.
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