At the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum, Russian President Vladimir Putin presented a detailed assessment of the current macroeconomic situation. The key signal from his speech is that the fight against inflation is proceeding successfully, but the task of preventing the economy from overheating requires exceptionally careful policy from the regulator and the government.
According to the latest data from the Ministry of Economic Development, as of August 31, annual inflation slowed to 6.3%. This is the result of deliberate actions by the Central Bank and the Cabinet of Ministers, who managed to avoid a hyperinflationary scenario, although such a risk was quite real. However, as the president emphasized, the volume of investment has indeed declined—and this is a direct consequence of tight monetary policy.
Balance between cooling and stagnation
The authorities were aware of the risk of excessive economic contraction from the very beginning. Putin acknowledged that there are currently different opinions about further steps: some experts call for a new growth cycle and greater dynamism, but discussions with professionals could be endless. The main goal, in his words, is to create conditions for private investment, since it is private investment, not state resources, that will become the driver of development.
The president also addressed the state of the federal budget. There is a deficit, but it is not critical against the backdrop of one of the lowest levels of public debt in the world. Putin called not so much for saving as for spending funds rationally and setting priorities. He reminded that budget fluctuations—sometimes surplus, sometimes deficit—are normal, and expressed confidence that current problems will be resolved gradually, without overburdening the financial system.
A new tool for infrastructure
The key topic was attracting "long money" to public-private partnership projects. Putin instructed the government to closely monitor the practical implementation of the financing model through the issuance of concession bonds. Let me remind you that a year ago at the EEF, VEB.RF and Sberbank announced a two-stage financing scheme for long-term infrastructure initiatives, which involves creating a new type of securities for institutional investors. Now the mechanism needs to be fine-tuned and tested in practice.
Expert commentary: The slowdown of inflation to 6.3% is a positive signal, but the market is already pricing in a possible easing of the Central Bank's policy. However, the rate will likely remain high longer than investors expect in order to cement the trend. As for concession bonds, this is an attempt to build a bridge between infrastructure needs and institutional capital, but success will depend on the transparency of these instruments and their liquidity on the secondary market.