Putin: Russia's reserves to exceed debts http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=46113 Russia's gold and foreign exchange reserves, the world's fourth-largest, may exceed both sovereign and private external debt in 2006, President Vladimir Putin told an economic forum on Tuesday. Russia's gold and foreign exchange reserves stood at $247 billion last week, while the country's total external debt stood at $258 billion as of Jan. 1, 2006, central bank data showed. "We don't need to borrow abroad any more. We are repaying our debts on time and even ahead of schedule," Putin said. Russia paid back $15 billion of its debt to the Paris Club of sovereign lenders in 2005 and plans to pay another $12 billion this year, with sovereign debt falling to $71.4 billion as a result. But debts owed by Russian banks and corporations rose 62 percent in 2005 to $176.2 billion on Jan. 1 as companies like state-controlled gas giant Gazprom and oil company Rosneft borrow heavily abroad to finance acquisitions. Russia, flush with oil revenues, does not need to borrow abroad but plans to boost its domestic debt program. Central bank First Deputy Chairman Alexei Ulyukayev said this month Russia's gold and forex reserves would grow by $5-6 billion a month, which may lead the world's No. 2 oil exporter to overtake Taiwan in the reserves league table. But reserves may go down when Russia pays its external debt or converts roubles from its $71.8 billion oil stabilization fund into hard currency. Putin said he saw inflation, monopolization of the economy, bureaucracy and corruption as the main threats to the Russian economy and called for transparent rules on foreign investment in security-sensitive industries. "It is important that unjustified restrictions are not created under a pretext of national interest protection. Our economy has to be open and transparent to the maximum," Putin said. We should not allow security concerns to create excessive limitations for foreign investors," he said in an apparent reference to curbs on foreign investor activity in sectors of the Russian economy, such as oil and gas extraction, considered of strategic significance. Putin said cumulative foreign direct and indirect investment in the country now amounted to $112 billion dollars (89 billion euros) and said Russia was creating good conditions for business, including through the creation of special low-tax economic zones.
