The US magazine has dissected the blueprint tabled by the Russian cabinet in response to the deteriorating economic outlook in a no-words-minced piece by contributor Anna Borshchevskaya.

 

The author with the name that sounds very much like Russian polled a panel of experts that painted a skeptical picture of the effort.

 

According to FBK Institute for Strategic Analysis Director Igor Nikolayev quoted by the Forbes, the plan’s authors “are acting about the same way as they had done six years ago – on the principle of ‘let’s pour money [on the problem], and then, maybe, everything will end, oil prices will bounce back again.’” The plan’s priorities, too, according to Nikolayev, are about the same as they were during the global financial crisis, but “you have to consider that this is a different crisis,” he added.

 

“It’s a typical government-led program. It focuses on subsidies,” Ivan Tchakarov, Russia economist at Citibank was quoted by Reuters as saying, “I haven’t seen any particular measure that strikes me as a structural reform, it’s just talk.” Tchakarov added that the plan is vague, as the Russian government still has to revise its budget and macroeconomic forecasts for 2015.

 

The article’s author focuses on transparency, saying that there would be just 1.3 trillion “of truly new funding sources” since 1 trillion was already allocated to the Russian banking sector and accounted for in the 2014 budget.

 

“Russia’s current economic problems  are deeper than what the country faced in 2008,” that’s the key takeaway from the piece.

 

“Russia no longer has the same level of international reserves it had in 2008. While it may appear that the country’s overall reserves are still high, the usable reserves may be too low,” reads the article.

 

Low oil prices and galloping inflation may add up to the problems and exacerbate the situation caused by Western sanctions .

Sources: http://www.forbes.com