Kostin asked the government to increase loan amount to support the economy

Andrey Kostin, a financial expert and president of VTB Bank’s board, suggested that the country’s government triple the amount of state loans to overcome the consequences of the oil prices collapse and the spread of the coronavirus.

Kostin is sure that 2 trillion rubles that the authorities reckon upon are not enough. The head of the bank said that the country will need at least 6 trillion rubles to deal with the consequences of the economic crisis. These funds are needed to support citizens and the most affected industries.

On April 23, at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin the financier announced a list of measures that will help to stabilize the country’s economy. Among them, Kostin named an increase in borrowing by the Ministry of Finance. Moreover, banks could buy an additional issue of federal loan bonds, subject to the extension of repo terms.

Since the beginning of the spread of the coronavirus, the government has prepared two packages of measures to support the economy — for 300 billion and for 1.8 trillion rubles, which in total reaches 2.8% of GDP.

Alexeн Kudrin, the head of the Accounts Chamber, previously stated that these funds are not enough, and the package of measures should amount to at least 7% of GDP. He also stated that according to the results of this year, the number of unemployed will increase from 2.5 to 8 million people.