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In 2017, a new 3-year privatization program was launched for 2017-2019, approved with some delay by the RF Government's Order No. 227-r of February 8, 2017. The intensity of its adjustments is still small.

Tax changes, in particular, feasible increase of the personal income tax (PIT) from 13% to 15% with simultaneous introduction of a tax-free minimum, was discussed at one of the first post-elections meeting with Dmitry Medvedev, the Prime Minister (tax – free minimum was not specified in the media).

The topic of tax scoring is widely discussed by the expert community. For the Russian tax field, it is a novelty. In compliance with Federal Law No. 134-FZ on Amendment of Article 102 of Part 1 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, a portion of the information which used to be solely at disposal of the tax authorities will cease to be a tax secret and be made public. Initially, it was planned to do so starting from the end of July 2017, however, later the date of implementation of that provision was changed for June 1, 2018 by Order No. MM-7-14/582@ of July 27, 2017.

For the first time since the beginning of the war of sanctions, Russia increased imports of agricultural products in 2017.

In its February issue of the “Economic Situation” Review, the RF Ministry of Economic Development has presented a broad estimation of the current economic situation in Russia.

The banking sector demonstrated ambiguous results in 2017. On the one side, there were no explicit crisis phenomena, while on the other side it cannot be said that all the negative trends were successfully averted.

According to the preliminary estimation of the 2017 balance of payments, the current account surplus amounted to $40.2bn (a 58% increase on the relevant index of the previous year) and contributed to the appreciation of the rouble. Growth in the current account surplus was driven largely by the trade commodity balance which amounted to $115.8bn, a 28% increased on the index of 2016.

The 2017 economic results were in line with experts’ expectations and forecasts which they made throughout the year.

The Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) brought numerous lawsuits against customers (about 500 persons) who had taken their funds from banks shortly before those bank’s licenses were withdrawn. Depositors have already started to collect signatures to draw the public attention to the Agency’s activities.

On 25 January, having left the long-term issuer rating and the rating of Russia’s priority and unsecured debt at the level of “Ba1” the Moody’s , an international rating agency revised upward the rating forecast from “stable” to “positive”.

At the 9th Gaidar Forum, in the framework of the discussion: “Capital Movement New Trends: the OECD Code” the topic of limitation of foreign capital on the Russian market was discussed. There are two main factors behind the idea of limiting the foreign capital movement: maintenance of the financial stability and the government’s unwillingness to let foreign investors in some sectors of the economy.

At the 9th Gaidar Forum, the issues of liberalization of the currency regulation and control were discussed.

At the 9th Gaidar Forum, the expert discussion “Economic Development in Multidisciplinary Terms” dealt with factors behind economic growth, such as institutes, human capital, social and political conditions, innovative development and other.

It is commonly known that from the beginning of 2017 in order to ensure the equilibrium of the RF budget system the norms of distribution of corporate profit tax revenues between the federal budget and the budgets of the constituent entities of the RF in favor of the federal center were temporarily modified.

At the 9th Gaidar Forum, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov spoke about the need to increase social capital expenditures and promote social support targeting.

A topic of the debates at the 9th Gaidar Forum was the efficiency of the Russian Central Bank’s monetary policy and inflation targeting. These issues were dealt with at the expert discussion: “The Challenges of the Monetary Policy of the Central Bank of Russia amid Slowdown of the Rate of Inflation”.