#6055
[Second Issue of the Day]
#4
Kremlin economics guru hails "courageous and
wise" debt policy
Itar-Tass
February 4, 2002
Russia's decision to pay off some of its foreign debt ahead of schedule helped to boost economic growth last year. It also smoothed out the peak in repayments that was threatening the economy in 2003, according to Kremlin economics adviser Andrey Illarionov. He was speaking at the World Economic Forum in New York. The following is the text of a report in English by the news agency ITAR-TASS:
New York, 4 February: The decision of the Russian government to pay the foreign debt in full amount in accordance with the schedule was "not only courageous, but also wise" because it helped maintain the economic growth rate, Andrey Illarionov, adviser to the Russian president on economic problems, told ITAR-TASS. He is taking part in the World Economic Forum in New York.
"Foreign debt payments were made in advance in 2001. We not only paid 14bn dollars in accordance with the schedule. The Central Bank paid in advance 2.8bn dollars to the International Monetary Fund. In addition to that, some other payments were also made. As a result of it, the total amount of payments exceeded R17bn dollars in 2001," Illarionov continued.
Thanks to the additional payments, he continued, Russia managed not only to reduce considerably its foreign debt but also to cut down the amount of foreign debt payments to be made in 2003. In the opinion of Illarionov, The "2003 problem" is non-existent. "It turns out that, according to the schedule, our debt payments will be smaller in 2003 than in 2001. Our 2001 foreign debt payments did not hamper our economic growth. On the contrary, they promoted it a great deal. It is highly probable that we would have had no economic growth without those payments," Illarionov said. He explained that "additional payments reduce pressure on the real exchange rate of the rouble on the part of the growing dollar revenues, which are the result of high oil prices."
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