Mr Ignatyev said that Russian credit and financial institutions developed successfully in 2002. The basic business indicators of the banking sector – assets, capital, loans issued – showed high rates of growth, and grew in fact even faster than gross domestic product.
He said he was in favour of passing laws on hard currency regulation and hard currency control. At the same time, he considered it important to continue strengthening banking supervision.
Mr Ignatyev informed Mr Putin of the advances made by the Russian rouble. In 2003, he said, the national currency was expected to strengthen by 4% to 6%, while only between January and May its gains on stock exchanges had been as high as 3%.
He also pointed to a trend towards lower inflation. Since January consumer prices had risen by only 6.3%, while in the same period of last year they increased by 6.6%. According to him, the annual inflation rate was not supposed to exceed the 12% mark.