23 October 2003 11:30
Premier unhappy with poor performance of Russian mortgage-lenders
[Presenter] Trends in the Russian economy, the future of the social insurance system and the development of mortgage
and credit lending were the top-priority items for today's government meeting.
Opening the meeting, Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said he was very confident that there would be no drastic
changes in the economy this year. It would continue to grow in strength, the currency would remain stable and economic
policy would remain stable.
The prime minister went on to stress that the government should develop a comprehensive model for the social
insurance system which would link pensions provision, benefits and medical treatment. One of the most acute issues is
the mortgage position. Mikhail Kasyanov wanted to know what was hampering the development of mortgage lending in Russia.
According to Kasyanov, the amount of housing being bought on a mortgage today is no more than 10 per cent of total new
building.
[Mikhail Kasyanov] The amount of housing being purchased by citizens on a mortgage at the moment is of an order of
magnitude smaller than the amount of housing being built. This means that this system is still operating very poorly in
Russia. It is already clear that the problem is lack of finance, not a lack of money.
We know that there is money in the country now. After four years of stable development, the money is there. We now
need to know why the financial institutions are not lending to people. The financial institutions have the money. Why
are the financial institutions, the banks, not lending, or lending just a little?
In practice, we do know that sometimes citizens fund the developers by making payments, thus taking the place of the
banking institutions. This therefore is the root of the problem.
[Channel One TV] |
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