Once Again — on the Same Rake? (Special Opinion of the NSF Member on the Draft «Main Directions of the Unified State Monetary Policy for 2020 and the Period 2021–2022» of the Bank of Russia)

Abstract

The draft «Main directions of the unified state monetary policy for 2020 and the period 2021–2022» submitted for consideration by the National financial Council (NSF) and already approved by it is characterized primarily by an extremely narrow interpretation by the Bank of Russia of its constitutional duties and areas of application of regulatory instruments. The author as a member of the NSF representative at the President of Russia has acted with special opinion on the draft, proposing to reject it as contrary formulated by the head of state goals and policy objectives until 2024 From similar documents of previous years, since 2012, the three-year «homework of the Central Bank to itself» inherits pseudoscientific arguments and artificial self-restrictions, which do not correspond neither to the world’s dominant theoretical ideas about the mechanisms of economic growth, nor to the practice of money and credit management in sovereign and rapidly developing economies. The authors’ reduction of the subject of analysis and regulation exclusively to the processes related to inflation (including the dynamics of inflation expectations of economic entities) condemns the Russian economy to permanent depression, blocks the possibility of even simple reproduction. In addition to ignoring the real correlation between the measure of monetization of the economy, economic growth and inflation, the project developers are initially guided by erroneous ideas about the equilibrium state of the Russian economy and the almost full use of available resources. The article exhaustively characterizes the ongoing and planned policy of the actual suppression of economic growth, reveals the deciphering of the hidden logic of the «mega-regulator», and justifies the recommendations on the reassessment of the role and place of the Bank of Russia in the system of economic growth management based on the national goals and strategic objectives of the country’s development.