Govt not to replace commercial debt of regions with loans

MOSCOW, Oct 3 (PRIME) -- Russia’s government will no longer provide loans to regions to replace commercial debt, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Wednesday at a meeting of the Federation Council, the parliament’s upper house.

“We will no longer provide budget loans. The amount of these loans grew during the crisis and during the period of high interest rates for loans taken by Russian regions. The situation has changed, thankfully, and we provide budget loans only to cover cash gaps,” he said.

Regions should eliminate expensive commercial debt.

“This will become an incentive for Russian regions to get rid of this expensive debt, redeem it, refinance, or (cancel) using revenues coming at a good rate this year and, I think, will come like that next year,” he said.

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